Two Suns
by trueAnimeking
Summary: Jiraiya interfered with Hiruzen and Orochimaru's battle in the chuunin exams. Naruto is furious at Orochimaru for nearly killing the old kage. This brings out a more focused, determined side of him that people haven't really seen before.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Hiruzen Sarutobi lay on a hospital bed, unconscious, the toll of having fought one of his old students leaving him weak and closer to the realm of the Shinigami than ever before in his past. By the bedside, stood another of his students, Jiraiya, with a despondent expression on his face. His timely intervention in the later stages of the battle had led to this outcome. He shuddered, thinking what his sensei's state would be had he not intervened so fortunately. His summons had taken care of the rampaging snake summons Orochimaru had used to wreak havoc on the walls of Konoha. He had used a dual Rasengan (Spiralling sphere) to break open the Shishienjin (four purple flame formation) made by Orochimaru's bodyguards.

He then made five shadow clones, which proceeded to dispatch Orochimaru's bodyguards, his so-called elite ninja, thought Jiraiya with a smirk, who didn't last longer than ten minutes with his clones. When he saw one of them activate the cursed seal, he then began to take things seriously. That fat one, Jiro-something or the other, had lost it in the middle of the fight. He then tried activating the cursed seal. That was when two of the clones had used the Katon: Gamayu Endan (Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet) to set the unfortunate bastard on fire, ending his life before he could even power up. The clones then proceeded to kill the remainder of the sound four, only a girl with red hair that reminded him of Kushina managed to escape. Ah well, he'd get her next time.

Meanwhile, his other clone had taken his sensei to safety, leaving him facing his old wayward teammate, Orochimaru.

-Flashback-

"Well, Orochimaru, looks like nothing's gone your way today!" said Jiraiya, with a grin.

"Ukukukuku, Jiraiya, it seems you've managed to get in the way of my plan to destroy this Godforsaken village, again." Replied Orochimaru. "Well, it doesn't matter, now. I'll just kill you and then burn this place to the ground. The Jinchuuriki should be here soon, and that will be the end, Jiraiya."

Just then, the gigantic Shukaku outside the village was jumped on by what seemed to a gigantic toad, which cleaved its arm off. It then jumped back, and waited to make its next move. Orochimaru gritted his teeth, as he watched it transform into a nine-tailed fox that let out a roar, before rushing the sand tanuki sending them into a battle of gigantic proportions. He turned to see Jiraiya sending a wave of spikes from his now enlarged hair, which proved difficult to dodge. He took a few glancing hits, nothing too serious.

"Looks like your Jinchuuriki isn't coming." Said Jiraiya, with a smirk. "It's time to finish this!" He went through hand seals for his next attack and let loose another gigantic fireball. Toad oil was quite potent in its enhancement of fire jutsu, he mused, a simple fireball could become a flaming boulder.

Orochimaru was seemingly consumed by the flame, causing a big explosion. As the smoke settled, he heard the snake-like voice of his old teammate. Orochimaru had summoned one of the Rashomon gates.

"I'll kill you later, Jiraiya. It seems I've overstayed my welcome! Die!" He screamed, signalling a nearby snake summon, which in turn let out a large spray of acid. Jiraiya jumped back to avoid getting hit by the acid. Orochimaru then made his retreat.

-End flashback-

Jiraiya then finished off the rest of the attackers, drove them back, and finally attended a meeting with the assembled council, before coming to the hospital to see his now bedridden sensei.

He wondered about was to happen next. Hiruzen had been overcome by one of the greatest powers in the world: Time. Jiraiya knew that continuing to be Hokage would lead to his early demise. There were only a few others who could even possibly take over the position, him and Tsunade being the more obvious choices.

'Speaking of future Hokage,' he thought as a young blond boy entered the room.

Naruto had just woken up after having beaten Gaara. The guy had used some strange type of weird jutsu and let his tailed beast take over. Until, Naruto had hit him, though. He jumped on hit that pasty bastard _hard._ And that had cancelled the jutsu, effectively rendering Gaara useless. This was his best win yet.

But, he had heard from of the nurses of the Hokage being gravely injured in the invasion. This had effectively given Naruto to leave to find Hokage-jiji as soon as possible. And there he was, lying unconscious, looking weak and frail. "Jiji…" he said, staring at the resting form of the wizened village leader. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes. Naruto thought of Hiruzen Sarutobi as a child would his grandfather. The very thought of losing someone to the orphaned blond boy was simply….simply…unfathomable. The very thought that he could die was not on any list of outcomes or possibilities on Naruto's mind. He was going to take the hat from Jiji after all.

"Not his best day, huh gaki?" said Jiraiya, from behind him.

Naruto turned around to look at the Toad sannin. "Ero-sennin, Jiji can't….be like this. He's the HOKAGE! I want to find the guy who did this and kick his ass!" Naruto stood, shaking, his hand balled up into fists.

"Woah, easy there, gaki, you're gonna have to get in line. Orochimaru isn't going to get off this one easy. I'll take care of him." Replied Jiraiya in an attempt to placate the young genin. Naruto seemed to be angry even then. Jiraiya put his hand on his shoulder. "Look, gaki, the only way you can make Orochimaru pay for this is if you get stronger. The way you are now, there's no way you could even touch him."

This snapped Naruto out of the hateful trance he seemed to be in. He looked at the old sage, as he told Naruto that he was basically nothing to the snake sannin. He knew he wasn't super strong yet. But he would be. He would be the strongest ninja in the whole village. He would be a Hokage, and protect those he cared about, those who were precious to him.

Naruto looked up at Hiruzen's prone form, and then back at Jiraiya. "Then I'll get stronger, then I'll become the strongest." Naruto's tear-filled eyes had a new determination, one Jiraiya hadn't seen before. In fact, it was eerily similar to someone he had trained in the past. Someone who possessed that exact face of determination. Someone who had been Hokage.

Two weeks later:

Naruto had been working very hard since he first saw his grandfather figure's unconscious frame. He had decided to start working harder and to spend more time training.

-Flashback-

"Ero-sennin!"

Jiraiya turned around to see Naruto running towards him. He smiled at the approaching boisterous boy. "Can we talk?" he asked, as he came close.

"Sure, kid. Give me a minute." He replied, and finished his lunch. "Come on, sit with me. I'm assuming this is about your training?"

"Yeah, I need your help." Was the reply from the blond genin, "I need you tell me what to do next. I'm sorta confused." Jiraiya looked up from the bowl of ramen he was eating. This was interesting. Naruto was never confused about training.

"What do you mean, Naruto? Do you want me to teach you a new jutsu?" The boy looked excited at the prospect, but then seemed to stop. "No, it's not that I don't want to learn a Justu. It's…It's…." he trailed off. Jiraiya looked at him, patiently waiting for him to put into words whatever it was he wanted to say.

"It's just…Jiji knew more jutsu than anyone I know…he's the smartest person I know. But Jiji used to say that there's more to being a ninja than just learning a bunch of cool jutsu, you know? And in the exams, I did good, I beat Neji but I don't know…"

"So, what you want to know is what else is there in being a ninja beside cool, flashy jutsu?" asked Jiraiya.

"Yeah." Came the reply. "I never really paid much attention in the academy, so, I don't remember much…" Naruto put his hand behind his head sheepishly. "I was hoping you could help me…"

"Alright, gaki. Come with me."

-End flashback-

Jiraiya had led him to a training field and had then given him a lecture about the different types of jutsu, the different types of chakra natures and the different types of things he could learn.

"A well-rounded shinobi should have decent skills in all the major areas: ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. That way, no matter what kind of situation you're in, there'll usually be something you can do to get out of it. Taijutsu, when you have to fight in close; take your friend Lee, for example, he's the one who fought the Suna Jinchuuriki in the second round, right?"

At Naruto's affirming nod, he continued, "He's great at taijutsu. One of the best I've seen at his age. But, he can't learn anything else. That's his biggest weakness. You could easily put him in a genjutsu and then take him out. Or you could just him with ranged ninjutsu, he'd have to dodge. So, he's stuck having to work around all this. But that doesn't make him weak, no. It just makes him vulnerable when fighting someone who catches on to his weaknesses quickly.

If he were to cover all areas, then he could easily been one of the strongest genin in the exams. So, you have to cover all these areas to be a good ninja."

"Hm….Okay. So what do you think about me? I know I dunno any genjutsu, but I've got the taijutsu and ninjutsu to be strong, right?"

Jiraiya chuckled. "Naruto, your taijutsu needs a lot of work. Your speed is bad. Your endurance is good though. You could benefit from learning a style, instead of brawling like you do now. And your ninjutsu repertoire isn't very good either. All you know is the shadow clone jutsu. That's good. But it's hardly enough. The summoning jutsu I taught you is a big step as you get more allies to work with in battle. But that's about it.

But the biggest point, is that you can't a genjutsu."

At Naruto's confused look, he began to elaborate. "You see, Naruto, casting genjutsu requires extremely precise chakra control. You have more chakra than most chunnin here. You can't learn to do genjutsu because you'd be stuck doing chakra control exercises until you turned thirty."

Naruto seemed to somewhat distraught by the news. "Aww..man, I was hoping to use some awesome badass illusions into scaring my enemies or something cool like that…" But, he brightened up. "That just means I'll have to be the best ninjutsu user ever! Alright!"

Jiraiya let out a peal of raucous laughter at the hothead's declaration. "But you still have to learn how to dispel them. Otherwise, you'd be a sitting duck, just the way you are now!"

"Can't you teach me some awesome ninjutsu first, then teach me about genjutsu?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Hm….that doesn't seem like a bad idea…" Jiraiya started, his fingers under chin in a thinking pose.

"And you would benefit from having another attack…." Naruto nodded, his eyes shining with anticipation.

"Plus I do know a lot of ninjutsu, it's one my specialities, you know…" Naruto was practically salivating at the prospect of learning some badass jutsu now.

"But where's the fun in that?! Let's do some boring genjutsu first!" said the toad sage, causing Naruto to face-fault.

"Baka- ero-sennin!" The boy shouted, amid loud laughter from the sage. "Take this! Sexy jutsu!" Naruto transformed into a naked blonde girl, and with a cry of "Jiraiya-sama" Jiraiya flew off with a nosebleed.

The blond transformed back and smirked. "That's all the ninjutsu I need."

The next day, his genjutsu training started. He met with Kakashi the next day. Kakashi was rather curious to see the initiative Naruto had taken and the 'change' in him, as Jiraiya had said. Wasn't this the kid who was always yelling about super-cool-badass-awesome-flashy-as-fuck jutsu? Ah, well, Kakashi thought, you learn something new every day. "Yo." He said to the lone genin sitting in the training field.

"Kakashi- sensei!" came an exuberant cry. Kakashi had to say, out of the whole genin team, Naruto was the one person who was truly fun to have around. He was always upbeat and energetic, which was quite refreshing, especially if you were a hardened anbu captain with years of experience in assassination, torture and the like. Kakashi gave Naruto his eye-smile.

"Well, Naruto, Master Jiraiya told me you needed help with genjutsu. Though I am curious, why didn't you come to me directly?" He said. Naruto looked down sheepishly, putting a hand behind his head.

"Well, sensei…you sorta left me alone to train with that Ebisu guy during the exams, and that's when I met Ero-sennin, so…." Kakashi's visible eye widened at the name 'Ero-sennin' as he listened to Naruto's explanation. It seemed Naruto was slightly hurt at being cast aside by his teacher. He would have to remedy that now.

"Well, Naruto, for what it's worth, I'm sorry that I left you alone like that out of the blue. To be honest, I thought you could handle it on your own. And you did. Your performance at the chunnin exams was amazing from what I heard from the others. I'm sorry I missed it."

"It's okay, sensei," said the bright boy, with a smile. "I want to get strong so I can be Hokage and protect my precious people, dattebayo! Let's start!"

"Also, Naruto, there's one other reason that I'd appreciate if you kept to yourself." Said Kakashi, leaning in. Naruto leaned in to get what he was saying. "I thought Sasuke needed my help more than you." Said Kakashi, his hand cupping his mouth.

"Really, sensei?" said Naruto, his eyes sparkling. "I'm stronger than you Sasuke-teme! Ha! Take that, ya lamebrain!" Naruto continued to spout all sorts of insults at Sasuke while Kakashi stood in the background, with a sweatdrop.

"Ha….maybe…I shouldn't have said that…."

After Naruto calmed down (Which was a small feat in itself), Kakshi began explaining the theory behind genjutsu disruption. Apparently, genjutsu users sent a small portion of their chakra into the target's system, which made them experience different kinds of illusions. The more skilled the genjutsu user, the more small the amount of chakra was.

"So, Naruto," said Kakashi. "The simplest technique to break most genjutsu is disrupt your chakra flow by holding it in for a few seconds and then releasing it all at once. Let me show you. Genjutsu Kai! (Genjutsu dissipation)" Naruto watched as Kakashi showed him how it was done.

"Now, remember, you can only use this once you know you are in a genjutsu. So, be wary of the signs that you are in an illusion. Like extreme visuals, or repetitive situations, for example. Anything out of the ordinary really. Just make to do it when in doubt. Now, I'm going to cast a basic genjutsu on you. It'll make you see some strange images. I want you to dispel it, okay?" Naruto nodded.

"Ready?" asked Kakashi. "Magen: Kyoten chiten(Demonic illusion: Mirror Heaven and Earth change)!"

Naruto's surroundings began to change. He found himself suddenly surrounded by lava. He was standing on a rock surrounded by lava that was splashing. "Shit!" he shouted. "What the hell is this?! Okay, I know it's a genjutsu, but my body will think it's real if any of the lava hits me and react naturally. Okay, calm down, calm down."

Naruto then let out an abrupt burst of chakra. "Genjutsu kai!(Genjutsu dissipation)"

In a second, the training field was once more visible and Naruto was treated to the sight of his Jounin sensei reading porn publicly. "Sensei, I did it!" he cried. "Yatta!"

Kakshi looked up from the porn he was reading. 'Not bad,' he mused. He was able to do it quickly. 'Looks like starting him off with a C-rank jutsu wasn't a bad idea after all.' "Well done, Naruto." He said. "But you took five whole minutes to break out of that simple genjutsu. It looks like we're going to have to do it again so you can break out of it in under a minute. That way, your reaction time will be better."

"Alright, sensei! Let's do it!" cried Naruto. As Kakashi made the hand signs again, Naruto suddenly cried out, "Sensei, wait!" Kakashi stopped his rapid hand signs and again looked at Naruto. "What is it, Naruto?" he asked.

"I actually have a question, sensei."

"Shoot."

"If genjutsu are illusions, why do we feel them?"

Kakashi's visible eye bulged for a second. It was rare to see _Naruto_ , of all people, want to know how _genjutsu,_ of all the possible jutsu in the world, worked.

Naruto then continued, "Well, sensei, is it possible for a person to actually _feel_ the effects of a genjutsu even though it's just an illusion? Because, my arms feel hot even though it was just an illusion."

'This is new,' mused Kakashi. Naruto being analytical was the last thing he expected from the energetic blond. But then again, he was the most unpredictable ninja Kakashi had ever met, so Kakashi figured he'd just go with it.

'Looks like I'm going to have to get a bit technical.' He then launched into an explanation of how genjutsu worked in depth, why they worked the way they did, the psychosomatic effects that were a result of the complexity of the human brain and the senses, and the effect chakra and genjutsu had on them.

What was most interesting to Kakashi was, Naruto was trying to understand everything he said. He was actually making an effort instead of passing this off as 'shit I won't get anyway' as he had one day dubbed it.

"So, what we feel is based on we actually think we feel, and genjutsu manipulate that, right?" he asked, once Kakashi was done. "Yes, Naruto, that's it in a nutshell." Replied Kakashi. "Well, are there genjutsu that manipulate reality itself? I mean, as in genjutsu that you can't avoid by not believing the illusion?" he asked.

"Hm….Naruto, there's an old clan in Konoha called the Kurama clan, that specializes in genjutsu. They are rumoured to be capable of doing genjutsu that actually make things happen in real life. The last prodigy, was, however, unable to control her powers and wound up killing her parents, thus effectively ending the clan."

Naruto had a rather flabbergasted expression on his face that Kakashi construed as shock. "Maa, Maa, Naruto, When a kekkei genkai manifests, if the user is unable to control it, they begin letting it loose at inopportune moments that can wreak havoc. And that's what happened in this unfortunate case."

"But, to have done that and look in the mirror….sensei…" Naruto started, his expression sorrowful, "I can't even imagine…"

"Calm down, Naruto, she's being taken care of by the anbu of the village. There's not much we can do for her anymore."

Naruto seemed to have a thoughtful look to him now, Kakashi noticed. "Maybe, maybe, we can all go and talk to her?" he asked, interestedly.

"Maybe, Naruto, maybe. Now let me continue." Kakashi said with an eye smile. "Then there are jutsu that are cast with the sharingan that are impossible to break."

"But sensei, I've never seen Sasuke-teme do a single one."

"Naruto, he just awoke his kekkei genkai. Give it time."

"Okay, what are these jutsu that you can't break?"

"Naruto, the sharingan is capable of different things and the Tsukuyomi(Moon Reader) is one of them. It puts you in a virtual dimension where the person who put you in the genjutsu, which is done through eye contact with the Mangekyo sharingan, can physically and mentally torture you for a period of thirty-six hours. As the sharingan is a kekkei genkai, it uses chakra which puts in the rather horrifying situation of being in a world where the caster has complete control." Explained Kakashi.

"But wouldn't that go against the psychosomatic effect you just talked about?" Naruto asked. "Well, sharingan is a form of yin release, Naruto. That is, to say, it manipulates intent and spiritual energy of life forms. So, you can't beat it by simple belief. It literally manipulates spiritual energy, so it's impossible for the victim to break out."

Naruto didn't seem to be convinced. "That seems to be missing out on some details, sensei…"

"Well, to be honest, Yin release isn't very well-known and there's very little knowledge about it. Jiraiya-sama might know more though…And I did simplify the explanation a little"

Naruto now seemed to be satisfied. "All right, sensei, let's continue. Thanks for telling me all about it!" He smiled again. But then, he seemed to think about something. His expression changed from a carefree smile to a more focused one. And then Kakashi saw it.

His eyes slightly squinted. His mouth seemed smaller. His hair seemed to as wild as it was now, only bigger. The whisker-marks weren't as visible anymore. It was like looking at the face of the man himself, with a steel expression on his face. 'Sensei…' said Kakashi, his lone eye widening.

"All right then, Naruto, let's continue!"

A week later, Naruto had managed to dispel mosty genjutsu that were B- rank and even many of the ones that were A-rank, but he had trouble doing them under one minute. Kakashi had been so pleased with his progress the first day that he had called over a friend, Kurenai Yuuhi to help Naruto dispel even more genjutsu.

So, for a week, Naruto had been subjected to some of the weirdest genjutsu he had ever seen. Some of them had seriously freaked the shit out of him. But he had managed to do remarkably well, in Kurenai's opinion. She deemed him able to fight most genjutsu users effectively by the end of the week.

Naruto's answering smile could have lit up the whole village.

It was at the end of the day that he had had news that the Hokage had finally woken up. 'Finally,' he thought, 'Jiji's awake!' He rushed to the hospital, jumping over the rooftops.

He ran in through the front entrance. He walked up to the receptionist there, a pretty young woman with brown hair. "Excuse me, lady, which room is the Hokage in?" he asked. "The woman seemed to look at him with the usual expression of the villagers for a moment, before something else found its way into her eyes. "Room 258. He's currently taking visitors." She said. "And thank you, for fighting that rampaging monster during the invasion." She added the last part rather hesitantly.

Now Naruto had always been ignored. Some people might have described him, usually by the anbu who captured him when he pulled his pranks, as a rather necessary evil or even an annoying fly that wouldn't just go away. These moments of being insulted provided something Naruto craved as any other human being: acknowledgement. But this, this was one of the few times he was ever acknowledged for something in a positive light. He put on his brightest smiles ever, saying, "Thanks. This is my home too." And quickly ran up the stairs to see his Jiji.

Once he was upstairs, when he neared the room Hiruzen was in, he saw a large number of people waiting to see the fallen Hokage. He smiled and waited outside the room for them to leave. He later peeped through the door after some people had left and saw that Konohamaru, his mom and Choji's sensei, talking to him. Konohamaru was crying. 'Heh, he's such a crybaby,' thought Naruto, as he sat outside the door.

Soon, Konohamaru left too, asleep and carried by his mother. Asuma, or Choji's sensei in Naruto's world, stopped as he passed by. "Naruto, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's me."

"He's waiting for ya, kid. Go on."

"Thanks, uh…"

"Asuma. Sarutobi Asuma."

"Thanks, Asuma-san! Tell Choji and Shikamaru I said hi!" said the exuberant boy as he ran inside.

When he walked in, he saw his Jiji sitting in a hospital gown on his bed. "Yo, Jiji!" he said, cheekily. "You finally awake?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun. I finally am. It's good to see you." Said the old Hokage, a smile on his wizened face.

"A-Are you better now, Jiji?" asked a now hesitant Naruto. Hiruzen smiled. He had spotted Naruto when he came to the hospital through the window. He was truly happy Naruto cared enough to wait so long.

"I am, Naruto-kun." Replied Hiruzen. "Jiraiya tells me that you've taken a more active interest in your training. I'm glad."

Naruto then proceeded to launch into the story of how he fought Gaara at the exams, and how he had been learning to dispel genjutsu over the past week. He told Hiruzen about his training with Kakashi and Kurenai and how he had become stronger. He even told him about the nice 'receptionist nee-chan' as he now dubbed her.

"…and that's it, Jiji!" the boy declared. "Kurenai-sensei told me I was now good enough to dispel most genjutsu I would find in ninja outside. This just proves it, Jiji! I'm going to be Hokage and protect my precious people!"

Hiruzen smiled. It seemed Naruto had found a new dream, one it seemed would give him strength. "That's great, Naruto-kun. I'm very happy that you are. After all, that's what being a Hokage is about. Protecting the whole village."

Naruto who had been listening with a smile all this time, suddenly froze.

The gravity of that one statement, had seemingly put a bunch of things in place for him that he hadn't thought of before.

Naruto had always thought of Hokage as the _ultimate acknowledgement._ The ultimate way to prove that he was someone people could love and care about. A way he could prove that he too, was someone they could depend on, trust.

Naruto looked at his Jiji with awe. The old Hokage had told him everything he could ever want to be in a single sentence. He now understood why the old man before him was the Hokage of the hidden leaf. He understood, at least a little, what it meant to be Hokage. The leaf shadow.

When Jiraiya had told him of Naruto's newfound maturity, the 'change' as he had called it, Hiruzen was slightly surprised. Naruto had never shown a mature side to him before. It was something to look forward to, even if he didn't fully believe it himself. Now, he could see it. The look on Naruto's face when he had said a single sentence about what being Hokage meant to him, that look of sheer focus was one he had seen once before.

"Jiji, thanks! That means a lot coming from you." The whiskered boy said, a megawatt smile on his face. "Think nothing of it, Naruto-kun, from a Hokage that's about to retire to one that will take up the seat in the future." He answered.

Naruto looked up again in surprise. "Jiji, a-are you going to retire?" He asked, his voice small.

Hiruzen sighed. "Naruto-kun, I'm old. You know this. I also was gravely injured by Orochimaru." He paused at the expression of fury on Naruto's face. An expression he had seen once before as well. He smiled. Jiraiya had missed something, it seemed. "So, if I continue to be the Hokage, the village will no longer be safe. So I must step down."

"Who's going to be the next Hokage, Jiji?" asked a now curious Naruto. "I would ask Jiraiya to do it, but his position as spymaster is not something that can be easily give up. He is too valuable to us that way. He stopped at the expression on Naruto's face. The boy seemed flabbergasted. "EH?! Don't make _ero-sennin_ THE HOKAGE, JIJI!" he shouted. "He peeps too much already!"

Several nurses and female doctors looked out from rooms in the hallway towards Hirzuen's room, seemingly wondering the same thing.

' _Who in God's name are they talking about?!'_

They then heard a sound that hadn't been heard in years. Hiruzen Sarutobi's laughter. The sound coming from a man who had nary laughed in the past years. Laughter from a soul that had seen death, destruction and lived through it all. Laughter from a man who had sacrificed his whole life in service.

Naruto was slightly confused, but still smiled all the same. He had never heard his Jiji laugh before. It was nice. He wondered if this what it was like to have a grandfather.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had been surprised many times in his youth, usually by enemies in the midst of the numerous battles and wars. He had rarely laughed since he took up the position of Hokage, the stresses that came with it were unconducive for that kind of thing. But this, _this_ was pure gold. Called Jiraiya the _pervy sage_ was something so poetically perfect. His laughter echoed throughout the halls, bringing smiles to the faces of those listening. The Hokage, it seemed, was retiring.

They both heard a sigh come from the window and it was pervy sage in question coming in, having heard the last part of their conversation. "Well, it certainly isn't that bad a nickname, right sensei?" he asked, grinning widely.

Hiruzen turned a smile his way. "Surely, Jiraiya-kun." He said. "Anyway, I want you to find Tsunade and bring her back. She's the only one who can take the hat now. And she's the only one who can bring back some of the strength that used to be in these old bones." Hiruzen had discovered that the stresses of Hokage life had gotten to him and that he needed to step down if he wanted to die peacefully. The doctors had confirmed that much.

"Tsunade, eh? Well, you'd have a better chance trying to get pigs to fly. You sure you don't want gaki here to take the hat?"

Hiruzen chuckled. "Tell her to come here first, Jiraiya-kun. Tell her I need her help to get better. She will listen. Then tell her that I want her to take the position of Hokage."

"Well, then that's decided. Naruto, you're coming with me. Go pack. We leave tomorrow." Said Jiraiya. Naruto nodded, smiled and bade goodbye to Hiruzen and told "ero-sennin" that he would see him tomorrow, amid chuckles from Hiruzen.

"Well, Jiraiya, it seems you were right. He has become more like his father." He said, as the blond left.

"I told ya, sensei. That boy is going to become a legend, just like his father."

"Well, you did miss something though."

"What?"

"Did you see the look on his face when I mentioned Orochimaru? I know you were there, watching from the window."

"Yeah….that did seem a bit familiar…" The toad sage scratched his chin. "I know I've seen that before."

Hiruzen smiled, looking out the window at the setting sun. "It seems both the Yellow Flash and Red-Hot Habanero still live on." He could see a yound blond wearning orange run towards the Monument.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was a nice, sunny day. The trees were rustling peacefully, there were a few birds flying around, and it seemed like a nice day to be outside. The village of Konohagakure stood strong and mighty. At the gates of said mighty village, two chuunin, Izumo Kamizuki and his long-time partner, Kotetsu Hagane, stood in the small booth provided to chuunin as they watched the gates. These two particular chuunin, had for a long time, been assigned the monotonous mission of having to be the gatekeepers, repeatedly. They had, in fact, been dubbed "The eternal gatekeepers" as they had been assigned for this job so many times.

Kotetsu looked out upon the road that led out of Konoha with an air of boredom. He watched his partner, Izumo, clean the booth they were in with disinfectant and cloth. The guy was really too attentive when it came to cleanliness and hygiene. He had given Kotetsu some disinfectant and cloth, to be used for cleaning the booth, which Kotetsu thought was nice. But he just didn't care about the damn booth. This was the boring job ever. They had been doing it for ages. And it was _damn_ boring. Nothing ever happened of significance. All they did was get the damn register to sign for every person that came by. And that was it. 'You might as well be a damn shopkeeper, for all the good this does.' He thought, slightly bitter. It had been two weeks since his last mission outside the village.

He sighed. 'Well, might as well get comfy. It's not like anything interesting's gonna happen.' So he rested his face on the desk and stared out at the road.

Nary had an hour passed when he saw something most shinobi of the lead would be shocked to see. He saw _two_ _of the legendary sannin,_ walking towards the gates, with two other shinobi. He immediately got up and called for his partner to get the damn log book. 'Well, that's at least something I get out of this job. All the good gossip is mine first.'

Naruto and Shizune chatted amicably as they walked towards the gate. Naruto felt happy to talk to her. Shizune had been polite and friendly since they met, not to mention she was amazing at medical jutsu, which had been a help with recovering from the hand injury he had received, courtesy of Kabuto on the mission, the last signs of which vanished this morning.

"Hey, Shizune-neechan, how long has it been since you were last in Konoha?" he asked curiously. The older woman turned to look at him with a smile. He was like a child, full of questions. It was fun to have him around to talk to, especially since Tsunade could be rather moody and well, _drunk,_ most of the time. Plus, he seemed to genuinely care about her since the fight between the sannin. It was like having like a little brother, she mused. Noticing his patient expression, he quickly replied, "I'm not sure, Naruto-kun. It's been a long, long time. Though I do meet up with some of my friends once a year or so."

Naruto seemed thoughtful at that, so she turned to again look at the approaching hidden village. It really had been so, so long since she had last been here.

At the back, Jiraiya smirked. It was so much fun to irritate his old teammate. Despite their rather rocky rapport, he knew she genuinely cared about him. In fact, to him, that was what made it so much fun to annoy Tsunade.

It had been an interesting week. Naruto had to learn the **Rasengan** in a week and Tsuande would come back to the leaf. But there was a hidden factor in the equation they hadn't known about. Orochimaru. Jiraiya's eyes slightly narrowed at the memory.

Orochimaru had kidnapped Shizune and held her hostage in exchange for healing one of his henchmen, Kimimaro, who was suffering from some unknown terminal disease. Tsunade had healed him, and then Orochimaru, being the asshole he was, tried to kill her after tossing Shizune directly at her. And that was when he and Naruto had interfered. Jiraiya had held off Orochimaru while Naruto took care of Kabuto. Naruto's use of the rasengan (Spiralling Sphere) in the fight was a little shoddy, in Jiraiya's opinion, but he had to give the gaki some credit. He was a just a kid after all.

All in all, the snake had slipped away again, only this time after getting losing a somewhat one-sided fight from his old teammates (especially Tsuande, who had beaten him to a pulp). Tsunade had given Naruto her necklace, and had agreed to take the position of Hokage of the hidden leaf, having lost the bet she made.

Bringing Naruto along had been worth it. It seemed he had brought back some of Tsuande's old spirit.

But that crap with the Akatsuki at the Tanzaku Gai had really pissed him off, though. He had to talk to sensei about Itachi Uchiha and his partner, Kisame Hoshigaki. Those two had caught him off guard with their attempted kidnapping of his student.

'Speaking of whom,' thought Jiraiya. "Naruto!" he called. The whiskered blond turned to stare at him.

"You need to perfect the rasengan with one hand."

"EH?! Why? I can get a shadow clone to do it any time I want!" was the insolent reply.

"Well, that actually does waste a lot of time in a fight. Also, your opponent would see coming from a mile away, so, there's your task for the next few weeks. Finish the rasengan with one hand."

Naruto's shoulders slumped at that. He thought he had found an effective workaround, the kage bunshin (shadow clone) would handle one part of the jutsu, while the original would do the other. He considered what Jiraiya had to say. It was true that any opponent would see it coming _a mile away_ , if he were to simply wait for a clone to set up with rasengan for him. Plus, he couldn't really pull it off in a pinch if he had to. Or at a moment's notice.

Shizune noticed Naruto's rather blank expression as he continued to ponder the implications and possibilities of using a one-handed rasengan.

"Hey, ero-sennin?" he said. "Can you do the rasengan with both hands?"

Jiraiya smiled. It seemed the gaki was using his head after all. "I sure can, Naruto. It just doubles the destructive power. That way, you can rasengan two people at once too."

Naruto looked interested, even enthused, Jiraiya noted. He just needed to reel the boy in with something to make him work. An incentive, of sorts.

"How about this, gaki? You do a dual rasengan in two weeks, and I'll teach you a new jutsu. How's that sound?"

Naruto smirked. "You got a deal, ero-sennin!" was his exuberant reply. "Okay, now I gotta go train!"

"Not so fast, gaki. We still have to meet the old man."

"Oh, yeah, uh, right." Said Naruto sheepishly. Jiraiya smirked. The boy was a sucker for new jutsu.

Tsunade and Shizune had been watching the exchange between master and student with amusement. It seemed Naruto was a little bit of a nut when it came to new jutsu, they each mused separately.

They had finally made it to the booth. Jiraiya greeted the 'eternal chuunin' who were on guard duty, again it seemed. Those two always seemed to be working the gate. And then the party of four moved in the direction of the Hokage tower, in the centre of the village.

Hiruzen sat in his office, going through what preferred to call the bane of the Kage's existence: paperwork. He had read through all these boring reports regarding trivial matters, and worst of all, he had to resolve them himself. But, since Konoha was just recovering from an invasion, from one of their presumed allies no less, all the paperwork that day was important. The work regarding the civilian council and its matters would be put on hold for a few more weeks.

So, rather begrudgingly, Hiruzen was paying the paperwork more attention than usual, seeing as it was important. The file he was currently looking at was the one regarding hopeful chuunin from the exams. He smiled as he looked at a few of the names on the list. This would be interesting.

It was at this point, that the door opened and he saw the people he was waiting for. His old students, Jiraiya and Tsunade, accompanied their apprentices. As usual, the ball of energy that was Naruto Uzumaki was the first one to greet him.

"Yo, Jiji! How's it going?" asked the yellow-haired genin. "You get bored of the paperwork yet?" Naruto's cheekiness drew a few chuckles from Tsunade, Shizune and a round of laughter from Jiraiya. "Everything's fine, Naruto-kun. And the paperwork is just as bad as before." Said the ageing Hokage. "Ah, it's good to see you Tsunade-chan, Shizune-chan. It's been a long time." Hiruzen smiled at his student. Tsunade smiled back. "Yes, it's been a very long time. I can't believe I'm going to be Hokage, though. It's a little unsettling, to be honest." Hiruzen's eyes widened when Tsunade casually mentioned she was accepting the Hokage seat, and they immediately went to his other student in the room, who nodded with a smirk on his face and then pointed to Naruto with his thumb.

"Where's my greeting, I'm here too…" Said Jiraiya, actually folding his arms and muttering to himself within earshot of everyone in the room. "Ah, I'm sorry, Jiraiya-kun, it's good to see you as well." Replied Hiruzen. He then turned to Tsunade. "Although it would be best for you to become Hokage immediately, I think it would be better to wait a few months while you get used to the position as I teach you some of the things I've learnt from experience, Tsunade-chan." Tsunade simply nodded. Hiruzen took that as a sign to continue. "I've set up a program for battlefield medics at the hospital. You're in charge of it for now, the hospital, that is. Is that acceptable?"

Tsunade smiled. The battlefield medic program was something she had lobbied for in the past and was denied because of a lack of resources. It seemed the invasion had induced some reconsiderations to that. She was finally able to do what she had wanted since her fiancé's death, the one thing that would make sure that something like that never happened again. "I'll do it sensei. I feel rather short-changed as it's only for six months, but I'll do it." Hiruzen smiled. "I'll get the paperwork ready."

"Sensei, there's something else we need to discuss. The incident at Tanzaku Gai. I've positioned my network to gather information regarding the group Itachi and Kisame Hoshigaki are in. So far, all we know is that is that it's a group called Akatsuki, composed primarily of S-rank rogue shinobi. They're after the bijuu. The other members of the organization are still relatively unknown. I'll tell you more about them once I find out."

Hiruzen lit his pipe. "They are a dangerous organization, it seems. Itachi was the strongest of his clan, a hopeful for the seat of Hokage whilst he was still a member of the forces. Only a few of our shinobi can even stand up to him. His genjutsu prowess is the best in the elemental nations without a doubt. Kisame Hoshigaki, on the other hand, is different in that he is the strongest of the seven swordsmen of the mist. His blade, Samehada, is capable of absorbing the chakra of those nearby. He is known as the 'tailless tailed beast' for a reason. This is troubling. Jiraiya," he said staring at the face of his student with authority. "Find out everything about this organization. I want members, objectives, secrets, _everything_ you can get. This is a long-term mission. Do it intermittently with the other missions I give you in the upcoming year. We can't let a threat like this roam for long."

Hirzuen's expression then became a little softer. "But I want you to promise me one thing, Jiraiya-kun. You _will not_ go spying to another village unless you have a reasonably good idea as to what is going on inside. If you are to do so, you will have a squad appointed to you for the same. Is that understood?"

Jiraiya gulped. It seemed his sensei had actually anticipated this. Jiraiya and Hirzuen had a different relationship than the one that existed between Jiraiya and Tsuande, or for that matter, the one that _used_ to exist between Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Jiraiya had not been the strongest when he was young. He had been the weak link in their squad, Tsunade having received training under her clan and Orochimaru being the then rookie of the year. So Hiruzen had spent extra time with him, making him work through a lot of his basics and eventually teaching him different jutsu to help him be less of a liability and more of an asset to his team. This bond they shared, was one they both knew went far deeper than just the relationship between teacher and student. Jiraiya's ideology of the world, the way he viewed war and peace, the way he looked at the shinobi world was all a product of Hiruzen's teaching. And Hirzuen knew Jiraiya would sacrifice his life in a heartbeat for the village. It was his duty as a shinobi after all. But Jiraiya did sometimes have a propensity to put himself in dangerous or fatal situations, without sufficient reason. That was the unspoken message in the old Hokage's words, one Jiraiya knew was meant not only with the care of a mentor, but also from the eye of the most knowledgeable and sagacious man he had ever known.

"Yes, sensei. Loud and clear." Came his equally serious answer.

Hiruzen nodded. He then turned to Naruto. "By the way, Naruto-kun, what was the secret to paperwork you were so happy about rubbing in my face a while ago?"

Naruto smirked cheekily. "I'm not gonna tell you that, Jiji! Not unless you buy me some ramen first!"

Hiruzen chuckled at the boy's declaration. Then, his appearance turned a bit sorrowful as he gazed on Naruto.

"Come now, Naruto-kun, hasn't this old man been through enough trouble for one month?" the wizened Kage asked, still chuckling. "We-e-ll, I guess I can tell ya, Jiji, it's been a bad month for everyone." Naruto's eyes softened at the last statement, obviously thinking of the invasion, Hiruzen noted. It seemed maturity was finally making its way through his veins after all, he mused as the young blond made his way up to him and leaned in to whisper something.

Hirzuen leaned in to finally hear the "secret" to paperwork that Naruto had been bragging about for so long. The boy's voice was uneasy, as if revealing something truly mind-boggling.

"Shadow clones," he whispered, and Hiruzen's eyes widened. He leaned back, smirking like the cat that ate the canary, at the rest of the assembled ninja.

They looked at him expectantly. Hiruzen brought his hands together in all too familiar ram seal, and focused. With a "poof!" there was a shadow clone nearby who took Hirzuen's seat on the table as he got up and motioned for his now gawking students to follow him. He met Naruto's eyes and smirked. The most unpredictable ninja indeed.

A while later, at the Sarutobi compound, after a good meal and a long talk with his old students, Hiruzen felt content, as he smoked his pipe. It was a brilliant idea, he mused. A simple shadow clone. He sighed. 'How did I miss it before?' he thought to himself rhetorically.

It was now time for a now overdue rest, thought the old Kage. It was then he noticed a small blond whom he thought had left. "Jiji…"he said. He was nervous, noted Hiruzen. Naruto was _never nervous._ "Yes, Naruto-kun," said he. "Is there something you need" he said warmly. Naruto looked at him, an expression of steel and determination on his face.

"Jiji, I wanna be Hokage someday." Said the boy resolutely. Hiruzen simply nodded, conveying his opinion on the statement with nary a word.

"I want to train under you, Jiji."

Hirzuen nearly dropped his pipe.

"I want to be a great Hokage one day, Jiji. And you're the best Hokage I know. All the villagers respect you. You're a badass, Jiji! P-please train me!" After this rather abject declaration of wanting his tutelage, in his Hiruzen's opinion, that is, Naruto bowed his head. Hiruzen frowned. It was very unlike Naruto to bow his head.

Hiruzen reached and ruffled Naruto's messy blond hair. The boy really matured a lot since the invasion. "Naruto-kun, I'm old. _Very old._ Jiraiya-kun would be better teacher to you than I could ever be. You see, Naruto-kun, when you get old, your chakra reserves begin weakening. Mine have already been doing so for years now. My battle with Orochimaru told me that much. I don't think I can train you as well as I'd like." He paused.

Naruto stood back up and stared back with defiance. "No, Jiji! You're still the coolest Hokage I know! You're super smart and know, like, a lot of stuff and jutsu! Come on, Jiji, It'll be fun?" He said the last part with a hand over the back of his head, and an expression of slight guilt, Hiruzen noted. He sighed. "Naruto-kun," he said, looking at the shining blue eyes of the blond in front of him. "How about this for a compromise? You train under Jiraiya for the time being. Every few weeks, come here to the compound and tell me how you training is going. I'll tell you extra things you can work on, and I'll teach you jutsu and things to cover your weaknesses, or enhance your strengths. Is that alright with you?"

"Yeah, Jiji, that sounds great!" the boy declared, half-shouting. Hiruzen smiled. It seemed his duties had not come to an end after all. But, he noted to himself, passing your knowledge along to the next generation was something he truly enjoyed and in his eyes, was truly worth it.

"Alright, Jiji, have fun! I'll see you real soon!"

And with that, Naruto left the compound. Hiruzen smiled fondly as he again lit his pipe.

The next few days passed by in a blur for a certain blond haired genin. Doing the rasengan one-handed was hard. It took considerable time and practice, Jiraiya had told him yesterday. He had gone to meet the toad sannin to ask if the theory he'd been trying to put into practice was right. Naruto hypothesised that if he got one step down perfectly, and became quite good at it, so good that doing it was second nature to him, he could in fact add the second one into the mix without much fuss. Jiraiya had simply smiled at him.

"That's right, gaki. When the first step becomes second nature to you, adding in the second one to the attack will be much easier. But there's one easier way. This way is something I came up with when I saw you use the rasengan earlier. Kid, when you do the rasengan, you have one clone add the rotation while you power it up, right?"

Naruto nodded. Jiraiya continued. "Maybe you can try the rotation in your hand and the clone tries to give you a start with the power. How's that?"

Naruto looked thoughtful. 'If the clone adds the power as I maintain the spin, then I'll know when adding the power will keep it stable. That way, I understand how exactly the timing and spin and power can work together.'

"That's brilliant, ero-sennin!" the boy shouted, before trying the suggested methodology. He made the clone add chakra to the spinning ball as the maintained the spin, and this way he was able to pinpoint exactly how and when adding chakra would make it, in his own unique way of putting things, 'not blow up in my face'.

And having tried the technique for the next few days, Naruto had finally managed to make a somewhat stable one-handed rasengan by the end of the eleventh day.

As he lay in the training field, tired and sweaty, he felt elated and happy that he had managed something no one had ever managed to do before: learn the rasengan one-handed in under a month. "Yatta!" he cried jubilantly.

"You know, Naruto-kun, you could probably have quickened the process greatly." Said a voice from nearby. Naruto stopped his little celebratory dance, and turned to look at the person from whom these words had come. He wore a simple dark grey haori, light grey lining. Naruto could see he was wearing a simple vest inside, and watching grey pants. The smiling form of the third Hokage stared back at him, leaning against the fence of the training field.

"Jiji!" shouted the young boy, as he ran to the old man. "Hello, Naruto-kun. It seems you've managed to do the rasengan single-handedly." The wizened old ninja said, with a chuckle. The pun was lost on Naruto who simply smiled happily. Hiruzen had undergone a major operation a few ago, courtesy of Tsunade, the best medic in the world. This was right after the day Tsuande had been announced to be the next Hokage, causing celebration and joy among the villagers, who were glad to see a member of one of the founding families of Konoha take their place at the helm.

Hiruzen had told Tsuande of his weakening body, and after an examination, she had declared him afflicted with a virus that was slowly weakening him. "While old age does bring about weakness, it doesn't happen this quickly, sensei. The strength of your youth won't fade so easily. Give me a while to see if this is what I think it is. You may need to undergo an operation and some treatment afterwards. And trust me, you won't be going _anywhere_ for the next few years if I have something to say about it."

She had come back later the same day and announced that Hiruzen was indeed suffering from disease. The operation to cure him would happen the same day. And in a few days, Hiruzen felt much better compared to how he'd been feeling for a while. It was like a weight have been removed from his shoulders that he hadn't know was there. He was rather in rehab, doing some chakra exercises and moving around to get his body up and running to full strength once again. It wasn't like his chakra levels had improved, far from it, they had stayed pretty much the same. But he felt more spry and active. He was happy.

"So, Jiji, ya said somethin' about a shortcut?" said Naruto, grinning.

"Ah yes, Naruto-kun, well you told me about the secret to paperwork, it seems fair that I impart something to you to help you become stronger quickly." At Naruto's staunch nods, he chuckled.

"The secret, Naruto-kun, is in the Kage Bunshin no jutsu (Shadow clone jutsu). When you make shadow clones, the memories created throughout the clone's existence are transferred to the use upon dispelling. That is to say, you could use the jutsu to spy on other people, and when you've gathered the information you want, you could order the dispel and you would get all the information it saw."

Naruto pondered this new bit of information. That would mean, that if he did something with his clones, he would know it too. Anything his clones, did, he would totally know. It would be as though he had been there doing it himself. And then it hit him. "So, if were to make shadow clones to learn the rasengan, when they dispel, I would get the knowledge myself? The experience?" he asked, his voice low and full of curiosity.

Hiruzen nodded. "Seems like you've grasped the true potential of the shadow clone jutsu, Naruto-kun. The jutsu was invented by the _Nidaime_ , who was the one of the strongest shinobi I've ever known. He was the driving force behind many of the village's major organizations, including the police force, Anbu and several others. This technique was what he employed to get as proficient as he was with water jutsu, of course not discounting the fact that he had one of the greatest water affinities. That is to say, he was quite adept at using this to learn and train while he took over the more important tasks pertaining to running the village."

"WOW!" said Naruto, stoked at learning things which he never would have dreamt of learning things like this. Academy lectures had been so boring. "Jiji, that's so cool! But wouldn't all the shinobi who could do it be super-strong then?"

Hiruzen chuckled at the question. "Not all shinobi can make a sufficient number of clones that can actually perform jutsu, Naruto-kun. Back in the day, times were a lot more warlike so shinobi were actually much stronger than they are now. Nidaime-sama was a strategist unlike any other, even surpassing the intellect of the Nara clan when in a pinch. But the thing to be understood here, is that, if you don't have enough chakra, because you've not trained enough, or you don't have proper control, you won't be able to make use of the jutsu to its full potential. Moreover, making more than a few clones, say ten or fifteen could cause migraines and headaches to the user due to the overload of mental information upon dispelling."

Naruto seemed to take all this in with a silent demeanour. Hiruzen continued. "But, for you, Naruto-kun, that won't be much of an issue. This is because of the Kyuubi's chakra, which increases your healing factor. So, in essence, you can make several clones to help you, and it won't hurt you. But, make sure to limit the number to fifty for now, Naruto-kun. You're still growing, and we don't want to take any risks that might affect your development."

Naruto had actually closed his eyes and was listening intently to Hiruzen, making sense of everything, relating it to his own experience and hanging off every word the wizened shinobi said.

"Yosh!" he now proclaimed. "Let's do this! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" He made his favourite ram sign, and several shadow clones popped into existence. "All right, time to train!" said Naruto with a smirk. Hiruzen simply smiled and lit his pipe as he watched the small spectacle. Jiraiya was going to lose this bet, it seemed.

Three days later, Naruto smirked as he made his way to Ichiraku's to get some ramen. Jiraiya had been surprised when he showed him that he could now make a rasengan with both hands. After the initial surprise however, he simply smirked. "Good job, gaki!" he said. "Looks like you're actually using your head." Naruto didn't know whether to smile or be annoyed by the backhanded compliment. So, he settled for simply staring at his smirking teacher and nodding dumbly like a cheap bobble-head toy.

Jiraiya continued. "You have decent control over the dual rasengan (Spiralling sphere), Naruto. With this, you'll be able to attack multiple opponents at once. And since now you can do the ability to make the rasengan without the aid of a clone, you can move from opponent to opponent attacking them with rasengans like the Fourth actually did in battle."

Naruto's internal debate as whether to shout at the old pervert or thank him was put on hold for time as a mention of his idol was made. His eyes lit up with fascination and excitement. "Like the Y-yondaime?" he asked, his voice quivering with excitement. "That's so badass, ero-sennin!" the whiskered blond then proceeded to launch into a rant about how the Yondaime was super-awesome, the greatest ever, and some other boring crap, in Jiraiya's opinion. 'Yondaime was the strongest, yada yada yada…blah blah, and it looks like he's about done.' Thought Jiraiya as Naruto continued on and on about his idol. 'The kid can really go on about somethin'', the toad sage noted dryly.

"All right Naruto, now before I teach you a new jutsu, you have to _perfect_ the rasengan itself. Your execution is good Naruto, it's just not great. And before we move onto anything else, I want it to be great. So, you're going to practise the crap out of this technique, gaki, until I tell you to stop. I won't take more than a few days at the current rate you're going at. I'll stop by at the end of the day to see how you're doing. Get to it!" The toad sage had said.

Naruto had rather grumpily begun the assigned training, and Jiraiya wondered if he could bring the gaki's mood up somehow. He stroked his goatee idly as he stared at the small number of clones Naruto made to work on the rasengan, all of them grumbling in the same manner as him. 'Hm….maybe…' he thought before calling the original Naruto over. "Gaki, before I go, I want you to answer this. Why is the rasengan so powerful?"

The toad sage's booming voice asking the question startled Naruto for a second. Why _was_ the rasengan so powerful? Naruto thought about the steps in the technique. 'The first step was about rotating your chakra in all directions. The second was simply getting power to pop a rubber ball. And the third was combining the two. So, the power part must be what gives the technique its power on hitting something. The rotation part…hm…what does that do…' thought Naruto. 'When I hit Kabuto, the rasengan sorta drilled into him before he flew away spinning….like the first step…The second step involved making a mass of chakra in my hand, the first was spinning my chakra and that's what hurt Kabuto by drilling into him….' It hit him like a ton of bricks.

"The rasengan's two step actually cause the impact. The power in the second step adds more force to the rotation in the first step. That's why it drills, and pulverizes your opponent!" the boy cried. Jiraiya smiled. "Looks like you've got it, Naruto. The rasengan's spin causes a drilling effect causes a release of rotational force and momentum, which is why the target, if light, spins and that's also why no damage may be visible from the front, but internally the spin rips the insides apart like a hurricane. Good job, Naruto." Applauded the toad sage, smiling at his developing pupil.

Naruto smiled back this time, happy to have understood the principle of his idol's original technique. But then, something struck him as odd.

"Hey, what if the impact was focused? Like pointed like at a, a-a point or something, ero-sennin? Wouldn't that make it powerful?"

Jiraiya chuckled. Naruto using his head always seemed to amuse him.

"Naruto, if the impact was focused, there would no spin. Essentially, you would be focusing your chakra like a blade through your opponent. While that may sound great, you would need way more chakra for it to be viable, and with the spin gone-", the toad sage had said, when Naruto burst into speech like an exploding balloon. "The impact would also be weaker! That's why the spin has to be there! Because it increases the power like a drill, and reduces chakra! That's brilliant, ero-sennin!"

Jiraiya chuckled at the hyperactive blond's antics. It looked like with some nudges in the right direction, he would be able to create his own jutsu. "Yes, Naruto. You're right. Looks like you have it down pat. Again, good job."

Naruto blushed a little under the praise and rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks, ero-sennin."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, gaki, I have to go resume my research." The toad sage said and calmly turned to go about his business.

"See ya, ya old perv." Said Naruto, as he went back to continue.

"Hey! I'll have you know I'm not just a pervert. I'm a SUPER PERVERT!" the sannin shouted at his student, posing rather dramatically.

Naruto simply stood chuckling at the sight. His sensei was weird, he thought as he facepalmed.

In a few days, Naruto had made good progress on perfecting the rasengan, in his opinion. He was close, and he made forming the rasengan somewhat quick, even when using both hands. So, as he and Sakura made their way to Sasuke's room, he was in quite a cheery mood. Sakura, on the other hand, looked somewhat happy at Sasuke having woken up. Her obsession with their raven-haired teammate was actually a little strange. He then thought back to the academy, when Sakura's now raging obsession was a little more than a crush. Nothing had happened to make her think Sasuke like her, until they became genin. And then he recalled that he had, one day, transformed himself into the raven haired boy to get Sakura to give him a kiss.

And it struck him like lightning. He had never told Sakura that it was _him_ who had in essence, almost kissed her. And she thought Sasuke liked her. Of course, the fact that Sasuke had later that same day completely ignored anything Sakura had said to him was foreign to Naruto. That is to say, he had no idea.

He had to come clean. Otherwise Sakura would think Sasuke was secretly in love with her or some other crap and not pay any attention to him, ever. "Sakura-chan, before we see Sasuke, there's something I need to tell you…." he trailed off, looking nervous.

Sakura turned around. Naruto almost never spoke seriously around her. "What is it, Naruto?" she asked.

Naruto then proceeded to tell her the whole story. He watched a tick-mark on the pink-haired girl's forehead grew bigger and bigger as continued further and further into the story. At the end, she looked dangerously close to exploding. Naruto internally sighed. 'Looks like this is ending badly for me,' he thought.

"Na-RU-TOOOO!" screamed the pink-haired genin, her features set in an expression of rage. Naruto was frightened now. 'I think she's gonna kill me now. Well, it's been fun…' were some among the thoughts of the blond as Sakura readied her fists. 'That pose reminds of that cartoon…The something-or-the-other hulk, I think? Hehe….It's clobbering time and all that.' Naruto chuckled at his own private joke, which the pink-haired banshee (well, she did look that in her rage, Naruto thought) in front of him took as a sign that he was _not sorry_ at all. Which in hindsight, he should have thought about before.

After a few minutes of hitting him like a prize boxer training for a world final, Naruto's face looked like an old punching bag that was in _dire_ need of replacement. The boy himself lay on the ground like a deflated balloon.

"I'm sho-wy!" he cried, unable to form a coherent word, at Sakura, who was about to leave. Sakura turned around. "I ju-sh tha-wt you were booti-ful!" He said, half-wailing. Sakura's hard look softened a little. She still stared at the blond, who was trying to regain his ability to speak by thumping his throat and face a little. "Ah-eh, ow! I just liked your pretty pink hair and I thought you were beautiful! I ran off before we kissed because I couldn't do it!" That the last statement was a half-lie was something Naruto would do _anything_ to hide from Sakura, because if she did ever find out, Naruto knew he was dead meat.

Sakura's stare softened a little. "Fine, but _never_ pull something like that, Naruto, okay?" The blond nodded. "All right, let's go see Sasuke." She said, and turned around and walked away. "Wait, Sakura-chan! I wanna see a doctor! I think you broke my- I mean my nose is broken!" the now wailing blond cried at the girl's retreating form.

After a small preclude at a nearby doctor's to his face somewhat fixed, Naruto and Sakura went to Sasuke's room. The raven haired boy lay leaning against the headboard, still covered by a sheet. He noticed one of his teammates, Sakura, coming in, followed by-wait was that Naruto? Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw a body that looked remarkably like Naruto's, almost exactly, but the face was covered with so bandages that it looked like Kakashi.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" said a somewhat cheery Sakura. Sure, it wasn't Sasuke who almost kissed her, but at least the baka Naruto actually had the guts to tell her. To think she thought Sasuke had been into her all this time! Sakura sighed a bit as she a peeled one of the apples she had brought. Well, it's not like Sasuke was going anywhere. She could make him fall in love with her now.

A few days later, after a mission, Sasuke was once again in the hospital. Sasuke was angry. He had been angry all his life, but now, here he was. The dead-last, one of the most annoying people Sasuke had ever known, was now getting stronger and stronger. Sasuke could see it. There was no way he could ignore the fact. Naruto was getting strong. He was getting closer and was possibly stronger than him. Sasuke gritted his teeth and balled his fists.

Meanwhile, Naruto was at the Sarutobi Compound, meeting Hiruzen. He told Hiruzen the whole story about their previous mission, how they had met someone who had stolen the Raijin no ken (Sword of the Thunder God) the second Hokage's sword. "It was so cool, Jiji!" said the blond genin, practically drooling. "It was like, so big, and super-powerful! I had to hit it with the rasengan to break it! Sasuke tried the chidori (one thousand birds), but it didn't work. Maybe, that's because it was thunder too! Anyway, so I pissed this guy off, and then I managed to hit the Raijin no ken. It broke. And then we kicked the guy's ass, Jiji! Hell yeah!" The blond's enthusiasm was evident in this speech and the gestures he made when talking.

"So, Naruto-kun, how did you manage to antagonize Aoi Rokusho?"

At the boy's puzzled expression, Hiruzen chuckled and said, "How did you enrage him, Naruto-kun?"

The boy's eyes lit up in understanding. "Well, I sorta sent a bunch of shadow clones at him, so when he took them all out, he was pissed, and then I distracted him with a last shadow clone before I used the rasengan."

Hiruzen chuckled even more. "Insulting your opponent is a double-edged sword, Naruto-kun. It may serve to enrage them, and to thereby make them lose focus, which is useful, or they could even become more determined to finish them off. Make sure you know what you're doing when you hurl insults."

Naruto looked puzzled. "Why does that matter, Jiji? I mean, it's just insults after all."

"Well, when you insult someone in some fashion that's rather traumatic for them, or is something they think of as precious to them, they wind up wanting to finish you off, faster. That's why you should look at what people have to say when they talk trash to you in battle. Banter, while usually done for pure amusement, is actually an insight into what the opponent sees in you, wants to see you as, or whatever they find most noticeable. When you know this, you can sometimes use it against them. Or you can avoid making them want to kill you. In my youth, as a genin, I found myself in situations where I was beaten by ninja or was unable to do so. So, I would play the part of the nervous genin, too scared to do much, while inside, I'd be waiting for any opportunity, or for my superiors to arrive to finish them off. In reality, Naruto-kun, if you can infuriate your opponent, do so. But make sure to frustrate them only to a certain extent and not beyond. Because at that point, if you're outclassed, it will most likely be the end of the fight for you. If the opponent is closer to your level, they begin to try to hit you with everything they've got and will likely be sloppy. But remember, when you cross that line, they are likely to want to kill you. Nothing less. Make sure you can tell where that line is based on what information you get beforehand. If you can't, try to read them, get a feel as to what they're like. When you do, if you're trying to kill them, irritate them right before you hit with your final attack, because then they're more likely to make a mistake."

Naruto seemed to drink this information in like a shake through a straw. It seemed amazing to see the kind of perspectives the wizened Kage had to offer. Hiruzen looked at him with a smile. "And remember, Naruto-kun, the best way to win a fight, no matter what kind it may be, is to simply _not fight._ "

Naruto blinked. "What?"

Hiruzen chuckled. "Well, when there's no fight, Naruto-kun, no one has to die. No one has to get injured. Things don't get worse. There's no harm done. No harm, no foul. Things don't have to escalate until a way to resolve the situation can be found."

"But what if they really wanna fight?"

"Always be prepared. If they hit first, defend. Then, hit them so hard they'll regret it. That way, they have no one but themselves to blame. Moreover, despite constant provocation, if you don't respond or care, it'll show them that you're the one humouring them, not the other way around. Pacifists like saying that a fight not fought is a victory for both sides. There is some truth to that, even though it doesn't always apply. This is because, sometimes, a resolution is needed, otherwise the situation may escalate."

"What do you do then?"

"Well, there are several options. You may decide to simply talk it through. The other party might not want to. In this situations, it may be best to listen to their problems and let them pour out their frustrations. Then, with the use of proper negotiation tactics, you may be able to come to a happy resolution for both sides."

"What if they're still not satisfied?"

"If they escalate, then fight."

"Before that, you said through 'negotiation tactics'. What's that?"

"Well, when I talk about negotiation tactics, what I mean is that, you must convince them that they're getting the better end of the deal, when in fact, you're giving them what they want. You must lose, in their eyes, Naruto-kun, while getting what you want."

"What if they know all this?"

"Then it becomes simple. Then you simply hash it out. Give them what you can and take what you need. That's all. If not, then war becomes necessary."

"Then it's time to fight?"

"When there's no way to resolve the situation, be the first to hit. And hit hard and strong. Well-begun is half done."

Naruto took on a thoughtful pose, considering all the old Sarutobi had told him. He continued in the same vein, asking a few more questions before having lunch with the old man. Then he had bade him goodbye. Then, he went to meet Sasuke.

Naruto and Sasuke stood, facing each other on the rooftop. They stared at each other. Naruto grinned. Sasuke frowned. "What's so funny?"

"I'm just psyched." Said Naruto. "Today's the day I'm going to…."

Naruto then looked at Sasuke's face. He held an expression of almost absolute hatred as he stared back. Naruto then recalled the words of the grizzled old man whom he had talked to a few hours ago.

"… _But remember, when you cross that line, they are likely to want to kill you. Nothing less. Make sure you can tell where that line is…"_

He then understood something. Sasuke looked on him as a source of strength. Someone to keep ahead of, because if didn't, Sasuke thought himself weak. He then recalled how Sasuke had been, after Itachi had deemed him their 'target' in Tanzaku Gai. He brushed Sasuke aside, that bastard! Sasuke had been scared that he was becoming weak. He was scared of not being strong enough. He was scared of not being strong enough to get the bastard who killed his parents. That's what this meant to him. Not some schoolyard rivalry, but something to do with being strong enough as an avenger, his ambition, his goal.

Naruto had all these thoughts for about five seconds. Sasuke had frowned and had noticed that the blond had spaced out. "Dobe! What's the matter with you?" he shouted. He being somewhat near _and shouting_ had the intended effect. It snapped Naruto out of his reverie. "Oh, uh….." Naruto started, this time not sure of himself at all. He honestly just to prove he was stronger. But hurting Sasuke like this wasn't worth it. He thought of Sasuke as a friend. Someone he could trust. But since Orochimaru, Sasuke had been falling into darkness and there was nothing Naruto had been able to do. His progress was grating on Sasuke's nerves. Naruto's new hatred of Orochimaru reared its head a little and then Naruto knew he would _have_ to get creative to beat this situation. Not Sasuke. The situation.

'After all, in a situation like this, a fight not fought is a victory for both sides.' He smiled. Jiji was awesome!

"Dobe! What are you doing?" shouted a somewhat irate Sasuke. Naruto snapped to attention and then mentally slapped himself.

"Uh…" he had to not be offensive, but still say something to _not piss Sasuke off._ Racking his brain to come up with something, he managed to say, "Uh…sorry, Sasuke. I just felt weird for a bit there."

Sasuke stared back in confusion. What was going on with Naruto? One minute he was itching to fight, and the next he was asleep on his feet.

Sakura had a confused look as well. What was going on?

"Yeah! As I was saying, teme, I'm going to…"

Sasuke looked on in anticipation. Sakura's anxiety reached its peak.

"FUCK YOUR FACE!"

Sakura's jaw dropped. She was _mortified._ "Naruto-baka! What do you think you're saying?!" She screamed at the blond, who was sheepishly rubbing the back of his head in response.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was frozen. He was gaping like a fish. He had not had a thing like _that_ said to him his entire life. Not once. This was the first time anyone had told him…. _that._

He was dumbfounded, flabbergasted. This was unheard of. How dare, he, that…that blond ASSHOLE?!

"Well, I'm gonna screw you like a bitch! How's that Naruto?!" Declared the raven-haired boy.

Sakura's jaw hit the floor now. How had _Sasuke-kun, her SASUKE-KUN of all people_ said something like _that?_ She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

"Yeah, well, not before I pound you like a whore begging for it! Coz that's you Sasuke!"

"I'm gonna fuck you up so bad, you're gonna be seeing in reverse, Naruto!"

"Well, when I'm done with you, you'll be my BITCH!"

"No way! You'll be my bitch!"

"No! You'll be my bitch!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

"Nuh-uh!" screamed Sasuke.

"Yuh-uh!" screamed the blond back.

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yuh-uh times infinity!"

"Damn it!" screamed Sasuke.

Meanwhile, Sakura had been moving her robotically from one member of her team to the other as they had er… _talked._ 'Yeah, that's it, guy stuff. Guy stuff. Relax, Sakura, you'll be fine. RELAX!' Her inner self screamed as she watched. She didn't want to watch this _crap_ anymore!

Meanwhile, the two combatants had readied themselves. They sprang into action. They exchanged punches, trying to overpower each other but found themselves at a stalemate, blocking each other's punches at the same time. Sasuke attempted to kick Naruto but Naruto caught his leg, and lifted him off the ground and began to spin him.

Sasuke used his free leg and a handstand to kick Naruto in the face, sending him flying. Naruto used the momentum from flight to try to land a punch on Sasuke, but it failed as Sasuke threw him away.

Sasuke rushed in and began clobbering Naruto with punches, most of which he managed to block before one unfortunate kick that sent him flying into one of the clothes lines on the rooftop.

Sasuke then attempted to find Naruto, which he wasn't able to do. He looked up to see no sign of the blond. Then he spotted him over the water tank, the sun right behind him. The light blinded him and he closed his eyes for a second.

Naruto jumped off the tank. He concentrated and recalled something.

"… _hit hard and strong. Well-begun is half done."_ The voice of Hirzuen Sarutobi told him.

So instead of a simple haymaker, Naruto jumped and landed with both feet on the Uchiha boy's face.

Sakura, who was watching the fight threw her mouth open _again._ "Na-ru-TO!"

Naruto chuckled. It seemed Sakura was pissed again. 'Well, she's already pissed, may as well make the best of it!' he thought. And then he proceeded to jump off Sasuke's face, using it as springboard and then landing back on it again. And repeating the process. The best part was, Sasuke couldn't use his sharingan to see and predict his movements, as Naruto was using his _face_ as the springboard, before landing on it again.

Stomp. Spring. Repeat.

Until Sasuke hit ground, skidding across like a football.

They began running around trying to get at each other, running through the lines of clothes, taking quick jabs at each other, which they were dodging well. Until Sasuke hit Naruto, who fell through a piece of hanging cloth, became covered up and Sasuke began punching the living daylights out of him. Naruto finally kicked Sasuke up in the air.

"I've had enough of this!" With a yell, they began a fierce bout of melee combat in mid-air, punching and kicking, bobbing and weaving.

When they landed, they again stared each other off. Naruto moved his hands to bring them to his usual ram hand-seal but the voice of the old Hokage reverberated through his head like thunder.

' _Things don't have to escalate until a way to resolve the situation can be found.'_

Sasuke however, was able to see what Naruto was going for with his Sharingan, and assumed the worst. He rushed in and kicked Naruto up in to the air. Naruto had no way to dodge as he stopped the execution of the jutsu just then.

Sasuke appeared behind him, with the Shadow of the Dancing Leaf, and hit him again, higher into the air. When Naruto tried to counterattack, Sasuke used his Sharingan and speed to simply jump off Naruto again and repeat the process.

Hit. Counter-Dodge. Jump. Repeat.

This happened about three times before Naruto became tired of this and didn't counter. Just then an errant thought passed through the blond's mind. 'I wonder if we keep doing this, we'll be able to see the whole village at some point from the sky? ' Unfortunately for that line of thought, his opponent had other plans.

Sasuke then tried to finish him off with a kick to the stomach, like in the chunnin exams. "Shishi Rendan! (Lion's combo)" he shouted, bringing his foot down to finish. But Naruto had thought a step ahead, having seen this before. His hands went to his usual ram seal, and several shadow clones appeared.

One took the blow Naruto was meant to take, dispelling. Two jumped off the other two, dispelling them. They hit Sasuke together, propelling him higher into the air. The original simply jumped off a clone and brought his foot down from above. "Uzumaki rendan! (Uzumaki combo)". Sasuke turned around to block the attack. And he did. Until the one of the first two clones hit him, one jumping off the other. He took the attack, now pissed, and brought his hands together in hand seals, ending with the tiger, the original Naruto noted from above him.

"Katon: Gokkyaku no Jutsu (Fire style: Grand fireball jutsu)!" the clones that were waiting below were obliterated from the impact of the fireball, which also softened Sasuke's impact as he landed from the height they were at.

The original Naruto simply landed on one the tanks on the roof. 'What now? Do I fight further? Is this enough? I'm close to his level, I can feel it. I can beat him!'

Then he realized that he didn't have to. 'I know that I can. I know I can equal him. I know I can beat him. This is it.' he thought, a smile gracing his features as he panted. 'I don't want to escalate the situation further.'

He panted a bit more for effect. "Okay, I'm done." He said, surprising Sasuke.

Sasuke blinked. He had seen Naruto take _way_ more damage than that. "Come on, dobe! I _know_ you can fight better than that! Even _you_ aren't that weak!" he taunted.

Naruto jumped off the tank onto the ground. He made some clones to extinguish the fire and dispelled them. "Even if I did, _teme,_ you'd be able to predict my moves easily. I'd have no way to beat you. I already used the shadow clone jutsu."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. What was _up_ with the blond idiot? He was the most knuckleheaded, stubborn, thick-headed person he'd ever met. And now he was trying to _actually_ use _logic_? Damn that! "Come on, Naruto!" he tried to goad the blond. "Where's your spirit? Damn it, COME ON!"

He rushed the blond and tried to hit him, only to find him dodging him as hard as he could. He eventually hit him, sending the blond flying.

'COME ON! What will it take for this teme to leave me alone?!' Naruto seethed. And then he had an idea. He grinned. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu (Shadow clone jutsu)!"

Sasuke smirked. It seemed like Naruto had come around. And he had formed five clones to help. No matter, that was child's play for Sasuke's sharingan. This smirk on his face eventually fell and became an expression of mortification and shock as the clones and original proceeded, to turn tail and, like a pack of rats, to _run away._

"What the-"he said, to himself. What was wrong with this idiot?! "GET BACK HERE, YOU FOOL!" he screamed, and began chasing the blond and his clones.

The sight of Sasuke Uchiha, last Uchiha chasing a group of blond troublemakers around a hospital roof like a Tom and Jerry cartoon was the last thing Sakura had expected when she woke up this morning. She slapped herself to see if she was dreaming. She wasn't. 'What THE HELL IS GOING ON?!'

Meanwhile, Sasuke had managed to pull all the clones and the original away from the fence. A clone jumped on another and tried to hit him as he was in mid-air, but he kicked it away and went through the same set of hand-signs as before. "Katon: Gokkyaku no Jutsu (Fire style: Grand fireball jutsu)!" he let loose as smaller fireball as the targets occupied a small area of the roof, which again was engulfed in flames.

In a few seconds, he was treated to the sight of Naruto performing the first step of the rasengan, a technique he had employed on their latest mission to get them out of a whirlpool, to put out the flames.

Was that a jutsu? His sharingan showed a lot of chakra being used. No, he couldn't let this happen, whatever jutsu it was.

Naruto was now bored. 'Man, Sasuke's being a prick! Tch, whatever!' He put out the flames with the first step of the rasengan only to be treated to the sight of Sasuke coming at him from mid-air with a chidori and Sakura yelling at them to stop.

He looked at Sasuke and saw the chakra in his hand. It was pointy and lightning-y, he noted, dully, like a rasengan with an edge. Huh, that's what that looked like. He should go tell ero-sennin. 'I want a closer look first.' He decided. He brought his hands up. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Sakura again screamed for them to stop, running towards them in a sprint.

"TIME-OUT!" Said the blond, his hands forming a 'T'. Sasuke's brain, for the second time that day, ceased to work.

'Who _fucking_ calls a _fucking_ time-out?! What is this, school?!'

He cancelled the jutsu and landed, skidding across the roof. He glared at Naruto. "What?! What is it now?! Are you tired of fighting AGAIN?! Can't you accept that I'm better than you?!" He screamed, frustrated.

Naruto was about to open his mouth, but stopped for a second. Sure, if that's what Sasuke wanted.

"Yeah, you are. But I'll catch up with you someday."

Sasuke's jaw actually dropped. His head turned around so fast he might have twisted it.

"WHA- I mean, yes, at least you get it now."

Naruto smiled at his teammate. Sakura, for the umpteenth time that day, gaped like a fish. _Naruto,_ her teammate, her hyperactive, knuckleheaded, stubborn-as-a-mule, persistent-as-fuck teammate was _giving up._ What the hell was going on?

"So, can I see the chidori again?" asked Naruto.

"Well, it's Kakashi's jutsu, so ask him." the reply came with a smirk. "Why, want to learn it?"

"Well, if Naruto wants to see it, I can show him." Came a voice from nearby. They all turned around to see the familiar form of their team sensei.

"Yo. Naruto, I'll show you the jutsu later. Take Sakura to get some rest."

Naruto nodded, took Sakura over his shoulder, as she had fainted with the tension and shock, and went inside the hospital.

He turned to Sasuke. "We need to talk about this."

"Hn."

With that, Sasuke received a dressing down about irresponsible jutsu use that lasted for a half-hour. Sasuke was escorted by Kakashi back to his room at the hospital with instructions to let him stay for an extra day.

Meanwhile, Naruto had left Sakura in a bed at the hospital. He took the peeled apples she had brought for Sasuke and put one in his mouth.

'Not bad.' He mused, thinking about the day.

'Not bad at all.' He started peeling some of the apples.

He saw Kakashi come in a little while to see him. Kakashi motioned for Naruto to follow. Naruto left some peeled apples on Sakura's nightstand with a note for her.

He followed Kakashi to their training field.

"So, Naruto, why do you want to see the chidori?" started the jounin, looking at him with his only visible eye.

Kakashi's visible eye was wide open. He saw the fight Naruto and Sasuke had, and wondered what in the name of Kami had gotten into the blond. He _wasn't_ interested in fighting? Since when was Naruto like _this?_

When they began their trash-talk, which was in the eyes of the jounin rather substandard and actually somewhat gay, he tilted his head like a person who was perplexed when observing animals humping at the zoo.

When Naruto used the sun to blind Sasuke, Kakashi was impressed.

And when Naruto used the first step of the rasengan, Kakashi was surprised. That was smart, and useful. Hell, he could use that trick sometime.

And finally, when Naruto screamed for a time-out, he facefaulted. He was about to interfere, damn it. What the hell?!

And now, they were in a training field, with Naruto explaining why he wanted to see the chidori.

"-and so the chidori looked like a rasengan with an edge to me, like a-like a blade, yeah, that's it." Kakashi was amazed. How had he figured it out?

"But I don't know how you get the lightning, though."

Ah, it seemed like his cute little genin still had a ways to go.

Kakashi explained the technique to Naruto, who listened patiently. Finally, Naruto nodded, satisfied at the explanation. "But who taught _you_ the rasengan, sensei?" he asked curiously. "The fourth. He was my jounin sensei." He replied. Naruto's eyes began shining again.

Naruto immediately started off on a tangent now that he had heard this, about how the Yondaime was the strongest, a badass, super-strong et cetera et cetera, making Kakashi sweat-drop.

He sighed as he watch a drooling blond go on and on about his idol. This was going to take a while. 'Might as well read till he's done." Thought Kakashi as he pulled out his copy of Icha-Icha.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Naruto's foot tapping on the ground as he waited for the other members of their squad was the only sound to be heard in the vicinity as he and Shikamaru waited for the remainder of their group. It became known early that morning that a group of sound ninja had come to the village and coerced, mostly forcibly, Sasuke Uchiha to leave Konohagakure. They were small signs of violence. When Tsunade had heard this, she was well, pissed. This couldn't have come at a worse time as almost all of the jounin were out of the village on missions, with only some genin and chunnin available for something as dangerous as this.

So, she reluctantly decided to call in the two rookie chunnin who had been promoted during the exams: Shikamaru Nara, whose strategic skills had proven a very useful asset in defeating a platoon of Oto shinobi, and, promoted because of his battle skill, on a probationary basis, Naruto Uzumaki. The blonde had been exuberant that day, celebrating with shouts and cries of joy that served quite amusing for all those around, as he was again quite literally, the loudest person on the street as the small party had walked to Ichiraku's to celebrate. Naruto wouldn't accept them going elsewhere. The blond had been hard at work serving in D-rank missions, even going so far as to make a few clones to do some of the more boring ones for the sake of repairing the village quicker, in addition to a few he had helping him with his taijutsu.

Kakashi had pointed out that Naruto's taijutsu style, if it could be called that, was little more than a few grapple moves and combinations he had seen at the academy, augmented greatly by his enhanced stamina and strength. He had basically said that Naruto was a shit-stain when it came to taijutsu, and that it would have shown in his performance if it hadn't been for the yellow-haired boy's amazing endurance. So, Naruto had taken to using a few clones to watch himself spar, to try and find weaknesses and loopholes. Hiruzen had told him again to watch the number, so two watched whilst he sparred with one. Then he would dispel all of them and consider his performance. They days had been passing fast with this regime and the repair work going on since the invasion, until now.

Naruto was pissed, this time, at his teammate. He could have gone for help, he could have shouted out or something, but noo. Sasuke Uchiha, one of the greatest pricks in the whole wide world probably went down trying to prove to himself that he was strong and didn't need help. Meh, they'd have to go get him now. Stupid teme.

Shikamaru Nara stood beside the blond rookie chunnin, rather annoyed by the morning's events. He had been peacefully eating breakfast, and was going off to do some mind-numbing D-ranks with his team, or so he thought. He had been munching on his cereal when his mother said that Hokage-sama had a mission for him, and it was urgent. He hadn't even finished his cereal. "Damn it!" he had said as he left for the Hokage tower. The message also said to bring Naruto Uzumaki, another rookie chunnin like him.

Naruto had removed the lid off the instant ramen cup after waiting two minutes, which he disliked, and was about to savour some yummy breakfast-ramen goodness, when Shikamaru had burst in through the window, and said they had to leave immediately for an urgent mission. He hadn't even finished his morning ramen. Hell, he hadn't even _started._ "Damn it!" he had said. But Naruto had had an epiphany before leaving that solved the problem.

Tsunade was sitting in her chair, waiting on the two rookie chunnin to appear. She had been sleeping, askew on her table when Izumo and Kotetsu, two of her bodyguards, who also frequented as the gate guards reported that Uchiha Sasuke had been taken from the village. She hadn't even had her morning sake yet. Scratch that, she hadn't even fucking _brushed_ yet. "Damn it!" she had said as she searched for available shinobi to summon on short notice. And thirty minutes later, she was treated to the sight of said two rookie chunnin, entering through the door, one yawning and the other…eating ramen. What the hell?  
"Gaki, put that away!" she shouted.

Naruto finished the cup in seconds after the statement was made. "Sure thing, Baa-chan!" he said cheekily, throwing the cup in a nearby bin. Tsunade had a tick-mark on her face as she stared at her fellow blond. She had then proceeded to inform them of the night's events, leading up till that point.

And that had led to where they were now. Waiting on the rest of the available squad.

As they showed up, one by one, Naruto became a little more relieved. "About time ya got here!" he said as Kiba and Akamaru joined them. The squad had now all assembled. Their squad comprised Neji, Kiba, Choji, Shikarumaru and himself. "Listen up. There's not much time, so I'm going to brief." Said Shikamaru. "We have been chosen on a mission by Hokage-sama, to go and bring back Sasuke Uchiha, who has been taken by a group of sound ninja."

"Don't you mean kidnapped?" piped up Naruto. Shikamaru turned to look at his fellow chunnin. "What?" he asked, momentarily taken aback by the question. "Well, you said 'taken'. Don't ya mean kidnapped?" Replied Naruto.

"Well, taken sounds cooler, you know, like from a movie or something. I just thought that it sounded cooler."

"Well, it sounds stupid, if ya ask me." Replied Naruto.

"I know, right! I was totally lost there for a sec!" said Kiba from beside him.

"I agree as well." Said Neji.

"There's no way any movie would have a name like that!" declared Naruto.

"I thought it sounded cool." Said Choji, now munching on a bag of chips. Shikamaru stared at them, and sweat-dropped.

'I was only trying to sound cool. But with these idiots…what a drag…I shouldn't even have tried…' he thought.

"Getting back to the point, their exact identities and skills are unknown, though I estimate them to be at least chunnin level in skill. Be prepared to fight at a moment's notice. Take them out, if necessary."

Shikamaru looked at all of them with a more serious air. "This mission is going to be tough, guys. We can't afford to give the enemy any quarter. Let's go!"

Just as they were about to leave, they were stopped by Sakura. After she told Naruto what happened the previous night, Naruto was angry. He didn't understand Sasuke's reasoning. After all, he could get stronger and avenge his clan if he went to Orochimaru. But, he would have no support from Konoha, one of the strongest hidden villages, which had tons of strong shinobi, to boot. Maybe Sasuke had been influenced by the cursed seal. He had had a talk with Jiraiya a few days ago, after his bout with the raven-haired avenger.

"Ero-sennin, you should have seen me, I was awesome. I totally got him good for those times at the academy! Heh, you should have seen his face once I was done! He looked like a doormat!" The boy laughed loudly.

After he told Jiraiya about the details of the fight, and why he had stopped fighting in the middle, about he gave up to prevent the fight from escalating, Jiraiya smiled at him. "Good work, gaki. You really showed a lot of maturity, Naruto. I'm proud of you." Said the sannin.

"Thanks, ero-sennin!" replied the exuberant young boy.

"Hm…it's very good that you didn't aggravate him further. If what you say is true, he might have drawn on the cursed seal to get strength to beat you. If that happens, he's even more vulnerable to Orochimaru's subliminal messages, which means he can't think straight. The seal influences him and like an addict, he becomes more and more in need of its power. That's why anyone branded with the seal is likely to become one of Orochimaru's servants. The only person who has escaped is Anko Mitarashi. But that's beside the point. If this is happening, we have to do something and quick. I'll see if I can do something, perhaps devise a more permanent seal to curtail the effects. Anyway, be careful, Naruto, around him."

Back in the present, Naruto gritted his teeth. The idiot! He could have gone to him, Sakura, anyone for help! But he chose to leave. He looked at Sakura, who was tear stains around her eyes, presumably from crying so much.

"Naruto, I wasn't strong enough to stop him from leaving. I-I…I couldn't stop him!" Tears streamed down her pretty face; they made her pale face look dark, noted Naruto. "C-can you bring him back?"

Naruto looked at her. He was inclined to say yes, to make Sakura feel better, but what if couldn't? What he if couldn't do it? What if Orochimaru was waiting for them somewhere? Or more of his men? He didn't want to make a promise he knew he didn't have a definite chance of keeping, and he knew Orochimaru being there would basically be guarantee that they'd fail. He was one of the sannin after all. And he had a whole army of people willing to fight for him.

But Sakura was distraught. Wasn't something that would make her feel better worth it? Naruto frowned. Sakura was a fellow shinobi. She would need to do deal with things like one. He sighed. Looks like she was going to have to shed a few more tears. "I'm sorry, Sakura, but I just don't know." He said, slightly shocking the pinkette. "Sasuke, according to you, left without anyone forcing him to. He _chose_ to leave. What if, he doesn't want to come back? I can't force him to. That's no better than what Orochimaru's doing." Sakura's eyes widened.

"Sasuke is what he says he is, an avenger. It's his self-given purpose. And no matter how stupid it is to not think ahead for his clan, he chose to do this himself."

Sakura just nodded dumbly. She knew she was weak, but even if she had been strong enough to stop Sasuke, according to Naruto, they'd be no better than the bastard who had enticed him away. So, she was totally confused. She knew that Sasuke wasn't a bad person, but he had chosen this path. The path of the rogue shinobi, to abandon all his comrades, his village, the chance to repopulate his clan here in Konoha, and to leave.

"Naruto, I-I understand." She said, her shaking voice reminding Naruto of the fact that he had to leave. He nodded. "Stay strong, Sakura-chan. Despite all that, I'll try to get him back." He said and turned around to the rest of the squad, who were waiting for the conversation to end. "This little delay seems to have put us a little behind schedule. We're going to have to pick up the pace." Naruto nodded. They had to get back Sasuke Uchiha. That was the mission. "Yosh! Let's go, team!"

Tayuya brushed a few falling leaves out of his face as they moved along the forest. She looked to her right to see a white-haired man carrying a big drum containing the person their master wanted: Sasuke Uchiha, and to the final member of their team, the big, grotesque Juugo.

The team sent to get Sasuke Uchiha, moved along through the forests surrounding the village hidden in the leaves. There were three shinobi on the team. Tayuya, a member of the sound four, whose numbers had dwindled down to one after Jiraiya had handily dispatched them during the Oto-suna invasion. She was a red haired kunoichi, the hair colour being a trait of the Uzumaki clan, of which she was a descendant. But she had little to no idea of the same. She recalled how she had been sent on this mission.

Orochimaru, was by all standards but his own, _very creepy._ Scratch that, she bet he even creeped himself out, stupid cock-sucking bastard. The snake sannin had called on her and told her he had a mission for her. He then smirked as he told Kabuto to bring in her team for the mission. Kabuto had led in a few Oto nin she knew but the last one fucking made her take a step back. Kimimaro.

Kimimaro had been suffering from a disease for a long time, a terminal one, she had heard, which meant there was no way to cure him. Orochimaru had taken him to get healed by Tsunade, but the albino had seemingly been unresponsive after she was done. It was later discovered that he was in fact, alive and kicking. It had taken his system two weeks to flush out the rest of the infection and for him to get back to full strength. Now, he was stronger than ever. And he was going to be make him the team leader.

Orochimaru saw her tremble, and smirked. "Now, your mission is very simple. There have been reports received from the northern hideout indicating a mortality rate that….displeases me. Find out what it is and take care of it. Kimimaro-kun, you're team leader."

Kimimaro had led them to the northern hideout, where most of the most vile, disgusting, degrading and blood-curdling experiments were.

-Flashback-

They had entered to see one of the most horrifying sights Tayuya had ever seen in her short life. The putrid smell of blood and faeces dominated the air. It reeked of death and decay. The sight was nauseating, even to her, who had seen her fair share of death. There were nearly a hundred bodies in the area, all of them mutilated in some way or the other. Some had their limbs torn off, some didn't have a midsection, and there were some which were turned inside out.

They walked into the remainder of the hideout, which was mostly rubble now, she noted. They started looking for survivors, to tell them what had happened. But Kimimaro had taken one look and his eyes had narrowed. He walked steadily, his path unwavering. Tayuya, as she moved some of the bodies with her _Doki,_ noticed him paying no attention to any of the proceedings and moving into the inner sanctums of the prison. She saw him jump down a broken section of the floor onto one of the lower levels, and his eyes narrowed even further, if that was possible. He broke into a run, and she followed, wondering if he knew what in blue blazed had happened there. She saw him run to a corner cell, whose door was one of the few that remained untouched and stop. She stopped just behind him, waiting for him to do something. She turned around to observe her surroundings, when she noted that almost all of the destruction had happened here, or at least _started here._ Was this the source? Was this the thing that had cause all of the destruction, all that carnage upstairs?

"Oi…" she said, trying to get at what the albino was doing. She got a blank stare in return. Such things were to be expected from Kimimaro. "You sure we should even _be_ here without the others?"

Kimimaro's stare intensified. "I'm n-not sayin' ya can't handle it…" she said nervously, her hands up in a placating fashion. Most people who knew Tayuya would say that it was odd seeing her speech without any profanity in it, others who knew the red-headed spitfire would stare strangely if it didn't. Tayuya waited for a response. She didn't get one though. The albino simply turned his head back to the door he was looking at before.

He strolled towards it, as though he had been doing so for years. He put his hand firmly on the handle and yanked. The door opened with ominous creaking. Inside, Tayuya saw something which would haunt her dreams for months. Kimimaro's eyes widened. "Juugo…"

Inside, there was a figure hunched over the corner. He was covered in blood, innards and grime. Several weapons were stuck in different parts of the body. Juugo's large frame was hunched over a small dying rat. There were also five more corpses, she note

d, based on the count of severed heads in the room, one in each corner, and one more in the centre. The bodies were scattered around, some parts here, some there. There seemed to be no way to figure out which part went where. Kimimaro called out the name of the lone prisoner in the room once more. "Juugo." He said, unfazed by the gore and carnage.

The large figure turned around, and stared at Kimimaro with wide red eyes. Kimimaro frowned. It seemed Juugo had gotten so far into his rage that he didn't even remember who he was. He idly watched the behemoth of a man charge his kekkei genkai and transform his hand into a grotesque, piston-like ram before charging at him with all the force of a truck on a highway.

He paused. What was a truck?

He dodged the attack with ease, Juugo's speed wasn't very great in this form. Tayuya had gotten out of the way the moment she saw him transform, he noted. Good. At least she had some common sense. A few more seconds had passed, and he waited. He didn't see the rampaging monster anymore. He frowned as he stepped outside the cell. He looked around to see no sign of the crazed prisoner, his old friend. His frown deepened.

He channelled his chakra. It seemed Juugo had gone in the direction of the others. He sighed. He had to move.

-End flashback-

Juugo had proceeded to slaughter the rest of the squad, only him and Tayuya remained. Juugo had apparently been rendered completely insane in recent days. The reason for the same had yet to be determined. The reason for his breakout was a complete transformation that seemed to leave him with no memories of the event and a rather crazed disposition. Kimimaro had to beat him senseless before he managed to gain some semblance of awareness and began crying like a new born at the death and destruction he had caused. Kimimaro was about to leave when they received a message from their master. They were to go get Sasuke Uchiha. With most of his squad dead, Kimimaro had decided to bring his insane friend along.

Obviously he was too important to be left behind, there was no one strong enough nearby to watch him, and so there he was. He would only listen to Kimimaro now.

He had remained rather reticent throughout the ordeal of enticing the raven-haired boy to leave the village, which Kimimaro had done himself, with Tayuya and Juugo watching. Afterwards, once the boy had met with them outside the village, and the process had begun, Juugo had still stayed silent.

Kimimaro knew he would have to have a talk with him once they got back. So here they were, moving quickly outside the forests of Konoha, towards the valley of the end, and beyond, onto Otogakure, where the snake sannin waited for them with bated breath. The body he was in had grown weak, and he needed a new one as soon as possible.

The Konoha contingent was moving fast as they jumped from tree to tree in the forest. The formation they were in, designed by Shikamaru to be useful against any surprised seemed to be working effectively, as they moved rapidly, directed by Neji's Byakugan and Akamaru's nose. "We're getting close!" said Neji, as a warning to the others, who immediately turned their focus forwards.

They jumped into a clearing and landed. They were about to move again when they heard music. Music coming from a flute, of all instruments. Shikamaru frowned. Why would they hear something like this, here of all places? Was it a distraction? "Stay on your guard." He warned the others, who took up stances. The sound seemed to be lulling them to sleep. They began feeling drowsy, and the stances of the squad began to falter as they tried to pinpoint the source of the music. "Genjutsu!" screamed Neji. "It's a genjutsu!" Gathering all his chakra, he let it all out at once, yelling 'Kai!', a move that was mirrored seconds later by his teammates. And then, things seemed to explode.

Neji saw a giant of a man, coming with what appeared to be a gigantic arm made of something he couldn't ascribe, right at him, and with the force of a train, send him flying away. The rest of the squad saw strange doll-like spirits flying towards them, about to ram them. Kiba and Shikamaru jumped out of the way, but Choji took a hit, sending him flying away. He got up, brushing his chin. This didn't bode well.

Shikamaru looked around. There were several dolls, which appeared to be controlled by someone, who was mostly hiding out nearby, mostly the caster of the previous genjutsu. Neji had been taken out, so they had lost their most effective tracker and close-range fighter, he thought, gritting his teeth. Then there was that behemoth, who looked ready to slaughter them all. He didn't look like he had any finesse though, and that was an advantage.

"Kiba!" shouted Naruto, who had now broken out of the genjutsu with an ear-spilitting "Kai!" shouted. "Where's the caster of the genjutsu?"

Kiba sniffed the air for smells for a second, and his ninja dog did the same. They looked at each other for confirmation and pointed straight towards where they had been about to go. "That way!" he shouted, Akamaru barking in agreement as well.

"Shika! Lemme take on the genjutsu user!" the hyperactive blond shouted.

Shikamaru nodded. Though they could use the blond in fighting the larger assailant, he had both Choji and Kiba to help him finish off the large brute. Afterwards, they could regroup and move forward. A genjutsu user providing the finesse and subtlety the bigger assailant in front of them lacked must be key to this team, he thought.

Naruto made his move, jumping in the direction of the woods, but was stopped by the Doki, that had made over to counter his moves. He proceeded to make shadow clones to fight them. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu (Shadow clone jutsu)!" he shouted, and several copies of the blond popped into existence and began battling the inanimate dolls.

"Juujin no jutsu!(Man-beast clone)" yelled Kiba as he got down on all fours. He tossed a pill to his canine companion, who then proceeded to transform into him.

Kiba and Akamaru joined in then, trying to assist the blond. The large man suddenly made a move. "Raaaaaargh!" he screamed, like an enraged animal, and heaved his strange arm, which looked like something made of dead flesh and with a piston-like hammer at the end. He rushed towards the fracas, with abandon and rage, like a true psychopath and flung himself into it. His speed was increased, Shikamaru noted. The guy was a raging bull!

Kiba was battling one of the moving dolls, when he noticed the gigantic man-creature running towards Akamaru. "Shit! Akamaru!" he yelled, kicking aside the doll he was fighting. Ninja dog he may be, Akamaru couldn't survive an attack like that. He pushed aside the clone of himself, putting himself directly into the path of the monster that was still screaming. And then, for Kiba, everything went black.

Choji saw red as he watched Kiba be knocked away by Juugo. "Ningen-Sensha!(Human-bullet tank)" his body enlarged and transformed into a round tank that proceeded to roll behind the behemoth who had now stopped on impact with Kiba. Knocking aside a few doki on the way, he hit the assailant with full force, sending the mutant-like man flying away.

"Kiba!" yelled Naruto as he saw his fellow ninja get hit by the charging giant. He tried to make to see what had happened, but a call from Shikamaru got his attention. "Naruto!" cried Shikamaru. "Go! We've got this guy! Finish off the other one!" Reluctantly turning away, Naruto jumped into the canopy, some of his clones accompanying him.

Choji's hit had sent Juugo flying away. Shikamaru saw Choji continue with another impact, then another. Shikamaru used this distraction to find Kiba, who was lying against a tree, a ninken dog yipping sadly next to him. Fishing out a soldier pill from a bag given to them by Tsunade, he put the pill in the boy's mouth and watched him get up. "You alright?" he asked the now slowly rising boy. "Gimme a minute and I'll be fine." Kiba answered. He nodded and gestured to the direction where Choji and their opponent was. "That way." He said.

Meanwhile, Choji had hit the giant man repeatedly, finally sending him colliding with a tree. He panted as he undid his jutsu. "How's that…"he said, mostly to himself, "for ya?" he panted as he watched the body of the man twitch slightly, a bit of his blood staining the ground. His clan's jutsu were suitable for strength, not too much for speed though; they were quite useful in situations like this. Shikamaru joined him a minute later. "Kiba's coming. Let's get Neji and move." He said to his old friend, who nodded and stood his ground, waiting for Kiba. He looked at the tree where Juugo was a few minutes ago, and his eyes widened.

"Aaaaaaargh! You will die! For Kimimaro!" he screamed, and charged.

Choji closed his eyes, unable to dodge, and braced himself for the impact as the giant charged him with his hammer arm.

The impact never came.

He opened his eyes slowly, to see the man stuck in motion, unable to move. He looked at his feet and saw a shadow connecting the man's shadow to Shikamaru's. "Choji!" he yelled. "Go get Neji!" Shikamaru's eyes were at his feet, where saw a small pouch. It must be soldier pills, he thought, as he picked it up and rushed to get their fallen comrade. Shikamaru watched his friend leave the scene, rushing as fast as he could, to get their fallen comrade. He looked the man he was holding, who seemed to be struggling with all his might. He could maintain the jutsu for a while longer, so all he had to do was wait until Kiba got back. Sending Choji to get Neji was his idea, Neji's gentle fist style and Byakugan would be key to defeating this guy, and Kiba would be there shortly to help him.

'Speak of the devil,' he said, as he saw the brown-haired boy and ninken jump into the clearing. "Kiba!" he yelled at the Inuzuka. "Hit him with kunai! We have to finish him off and get Sasuke!"

Juugo seemed to get angry at that. His piston arm seemed to let out gas like a geyser, and all of a sudden, Shikamaru's hold on his jutsu was no longer solid. Putting even more chakra into it, he yelled, "Finish him off! I can't hold the jutsu any longer, Kiba!" Kiba and Akamaru nodded and he pulled out some kunai and shuriken and hurled them at the behemoth.

However, their efforts were of no use. The giant of a man didn't even seem to care about the kunai headed straight for him. He raised up his piston arm to block the incoming projectiles. The kunai were simply embedded in the brown flesh of his monstrous arm. Shikamaru frowned. 'He doesn't seem to be fazed at all.' Thought the black haired boy as he pushed more chakra into the jutsu, trying to fight against the strength of the monster in front of him. "More, Kiba! Throw more!" he shouted.

Kiba nodded and pulled out more kunai and a few shuriken. "Take this, ya freak!" he yelled, hurling them at the trapped giant. Said giant simply smirked and brought up his arm to cover himself. Shikamaru grinned. 'Oh no you don't!' He forced more chakra into the jutsu at the critical moment. Juugo's eyes widened as he felt himself stiffen for a second. For the time since the inception of the fight, Juugo's blood stained the earth.

Kiba smirked at the successful hit. Shikamaru's use of the jutsu had been spot-on. He had timed the influx of chakra perfectly with the timing of the kunai and shuriken. He looked at the now bleeding giant. He had taken two kunai to his normal arm, one to his side, and the shuriken had embedded themselves onto the flesh of his leg, close to the knee. 'A few more attacks, and this asshole'll be down!' thought Kiba, as he reached into this pouch.

"Aaaaargh!" the giant screamed, gas rushing out of the pistons on his arm.

Shikamaru was sweating heavily as he felt the increasing resistance the man was putting up. 'Damn it! I can't waste any more chakra!' he thought. "Kiba!" he yelled to his comrade, who was now ready with another salvo of weaponry to hurl. "Now!" he yelled. Kiba hurled the kunai with all his might. There were even a few with explosive tags attached, noted Shikamaru.

The behemoth sprang into action at Shikamaru's signal. He tried to turn and make for the nearest of his weak opponents, which was Shikamaru, but a sudden pulse of chakra to the Shadow Possession jutsu had him frozen mid-turn. He saw the grim face of his opponent, who had a wry smile.

BOOM!

Kiba watched in morbid fascination as the behemoth turned to lunge at his squad's leader, only to be stopped at the last second by a pulse of chakra to said leader's signature jutsu that left him dangerously exposed to the final salvo of kunai he'd thrown.

Kiba watched in morbid fascination as several of the kunai embedded themselves in the flesh of his left leg, the one that had previously been hit by shuriken. One even had an explosive tag on it. Kiba jumped back to avoid getting caught up in the blast.

Kiba again watched in morbid fascination as their large opponent was blown up.

'Shikamaru is downright scary when it comes down to it.' He thought.

Choji, who had just found Neji and woken him up with a soldier pill heard the explosion as well. "Shit! We gotta get back!" he uttered to his now revived comrade. Neji nodded, a serious expression on his face.

-Meanwhile, with Naruto-

The annoying dolls that had been swarming Naruto for the past ten minutes had finally begun grating on Naruto's nerves. What was worse was that they underwent some kind of weird transformation when he'd made a bunch of clones earlier. They'd basically lost their physical forms and become some weird ghost-like thingies, thought Naruto. 'Now I wonder if the user can see through those things, because if they could, ero-sennin would love-'

Unfortunately for that rather innovative line of thought, one of the now translucent doki had nailed him hard on the face, sending him flying back.

The steady flow of memories from dispelled clones stopped mid-flight as well. Naruto knew this meant he'd have to start getting serious. He needed to find the person controlling those thingies. He brought his fingers up in a familiar hand-seal.

He smirked. He had a plan.

Tayuya frowned. She had activated level 1 of the cursed seal to trap the flying blond in a genjutsu, but there were no screams of pain from the vicinity.

Her doki were certainly useful, especially since she didn't have to get in to close, but they really didn't have the capacity to finish off any decent opponents. Those weird solid clones, that blond asshole had spawned, they were mincemeat for her doki. They got those stupid fucking clones good, she thought, a small smirk making its way to her face.

She continued playing her melody, hoping her blond opponent would fall prey to her genjutsu, but there was still no sound. Maybe he was unconscious. She then finally heard a scream. She began moving in the direction of the blond, all the while not stopping her song. Didn't hurt to be careful, after all. She heard a more muffled screams as she began running.

She moved forward, jumping from branch to branch. The guy should have been somewhere around here, she thought. She caught a glimpse of a fallen ninja in a flak jacket in the clearing and smirked. The guy was holding his head in his hands. Looks like he hadn't managed to escape after all.

So focused was Tayuya on her intended target that she failed to note two sets of blue eyes behind her.

She jumped into the clearing towards her presumably fallen opponent. He was writhing in pain, she noted. He wasn't screaming, but was twitching violently and didn't seem to even have noticed her arrival. She pulled out a kunai and rushed the fallen blond.

As she brought the blade to pierce his throat, she caught a glimpse of his focused blue eyes. 'Gotcha!' thought the whiskered Konoha-nin, as he dodged the sharp blade and delivered a haymaker to the surprised girl's face. Tayuya saw stars for a second as she found herself eating a taijutsu combination from her opponent.

Naruto followed up with a punch to her ribs, switched to a knee to her stomach and a kick to her shins. Then he delivered a final punch that knocked her down.

"You FUCKING son-of-a-bitch!" she yelled irately. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Naruto's initial clone was to pretend to rush back to presumably attack Tayuya from the front, whilst he tried to sneak around the back. The clone however fell prey to the first genjutsu the sound-nin had used initially and had been dispelled. However, this caused the original to realize exactly what was happening. A few more clones later, and a trap was set.

"Nice try!" He yelled back. "But you won't get the best of me!" he said dramatically, gesturing to himself with his hands like a cheap magician at a village fair. 'I must look like a total badass right now.' He thought to himself.

Jiraiya, Naruto's, _ahem,_ rather eccentric and flamboyant sensei, renowned throughout the elemental nations for his skills for his amazing feats as a ninja for Konohagakure no Sato, as one of the sannin, but mostly for his series of smut novels that had received critical acclaim, being a staple constituent of the average male's bookshelf (which was already impoverished in the ninja world, but impressive considering that males from all over the shinobi world, hell, even the samurai of Tetsu no kuni read those books), had rubbed off a little bit on the blond, leading to his current state. Said current state was him thinking he looked…ahem…badass, when he was in fact standing, giving his opponent a sideways profile while moving his arms in a manner eerily similar to how the Ginyu force struck their signature poses. Naruto did read a few manga, though in hindsight, he would come to slap himself for striking a pose that looked so….well...cringe-sworthy. His clones, who had noticed this, already looked mortified.

Tayuya stared strangely at Konoha nin's posturing. He looked like a complete, utter _idiot._ 'What kind of stupid dickhead poses like _that_?' she thought as she witnessed Naruto's latest bout of stupidity. Meanwhile, a certain toad sage who had stopped in a nearby town for some….information gathering on his way back to his Hokage to deliver a report sneezed. This, of course, led to the women in the bathhouse he was…..gathering information about, to discover his presence to find him and beat the crap out of him, leaving him a lifeless husk on the side of the road.

Meanwhile, Tayuya got up shakily and faced the blue eyes of her enemy. She knew that she had to go full power to finish this bastard off. She brought her hands up in a hand-seal. She had to activate level two now.

Naruto was on guard when he saw his opponent preparing to go through hand-seals for a jutsu, or so he assumed. He was not, however, prepared for the weird-whatever-it-was that was happening to her.

Now, Naruto was too shocked to act. His enemy's weird transformation was freaking him out. He had actually had a new move set up to defeat this girl and had even asked his clones to rush her the moment she was open. The clones, watching from the nearby bushes, had no clue as to what was going on however and sprung the trap.

Making a few clones themselves, the clones ran at the temporarily immobile kunoichi, who hadn't yet noticed their presence. The first two slid and kicked her up into the air. 'Now, boss!" they yelled, with identical, quite literally identical, grins on their faces.

The next two clones jumped off them to hit her further into the air. "U-ZU-"

Naruto snapped into attention.

The next set jumped after them propelling her further. "-MA-KI-"

He jumped off one of his clones and formed a rasengan in his hands. It was time to finish this.

As he attempted to finish off the prone girl in the air, her transformation finally finished, with her growing horns, amidst the red skin and now somewhat changed hair colour. "NOT YET, YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKER!" she yelled as she brought up a leg to deliver a kick to Naruto's face that sent him flying back.

Naruto's shocked expression went away in a second, however. "Guys! One more time!" he yelled to his clones, who were watching from below.

"Aw…now it's not cool anymore…" one said, as they began moving.

"I know, right…." Said another. The lined up again.

"Now it's getting cli-cli-"another tried to say. The clones began charging for their jumps, as Tayuya was falling down.

"Cliché!" finished one more.

"Boss needs to make shit work the first time!" said a clone, rather forcefully. The original sweat-dropped as he descended from his jump. "SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU IDI-" he stopped mid-sentence as he saw Tayuya reach for her flute again.

The clones' somewhat distracted gazes suddenly hardened at the instrument that had been the source of one of their kinds' earlier misery.

"Well, we might as well get closer to the end of the name…" said one as he launched towards the descending kunoichi.

"Osu!" yelled another three as they launched as well.

Two of them went straight for the falling girl as another two shot up right behind them. Tayuya growled. These clones were becoming REALLY FUCKING annoying. She hit one with an axe kick that dispelled it and then turned around to the other and tried to swat it away with a punch. The clone barely dodged by moving instead its head away and raising its feet in a now all-too-familiar fashion for Tayuya. Tayuya's eyes widened. The clone grinned.

"U-!" It said pummelling her jaw with a double heel kick. She flew up higher. The next two followed suit quickly.

"-ZU-!" She tried to turn around and hit them. One of them took the hit and the other slammed into her with a headbutt to her nose, sending her up again.

"-MA-!" Two more hit her in rapid succession as she couldn't turn around in time to counter them. No matter, in state two, this was no big deal.

"KI-!" The original frowned as he jumped. She didn't seem to be taking as much damage as before. He brought his hands up in a familiar seal and breathed out a sigh.

Tayuya watched the original try to finish her. Didn't matter, the little shit didn't know how much stronger level 2 made her. As much as this would hurt her, she would be able to get back up and finish the fight. After all, level 2 was where she was at her best. The extra durability and strength she got in addition to the power boost were not laughing matter, after all.

The axe kick hit her spot on. "UZUMAKI-!" yelled the Naruto above her. As she fell down, she heard a strange spinning sound. Her eyes panned to below her as she saw a Naruto flying up towards her, hand outstretched.

"-RASENGAN RENDAN!(Uzumaki-rasnengan combo)" Tayuya's eyes widened as she saw a blue spinning ball of chakra in the original's hand as he ascended towards her.

Naruto had seen how Tayuya had made short work of his first clone in the air. He also saw that she was able to attempt to fend off his other clones, whilst just a few minutes ago, she hadn't. Guessing she was stronger, which was more or less right, he made a clone do the final step of the Uzumaki-Rendan (Uzumaki Combo) and went straight for her once again falling form with a rasengan.

Tayuya's form went further up into the air as a result of the spinning chakra ball. Naruto's clones watched as she went up.

"How high do ya think she'll go?" asked one.

"Beats me." Replied another. "Think she'll tell us if saw any birds?"

"Why do you care?" asked another irately.

"We-e-ll," said the one that had asked, "I was hoping someone would wanna bet, y'know, so it'd be interesting."

The original had to watch as the rest of his clones mobbed the one clone for bets. 'I wonder what they're betting on…' he thought as the falling form of the girl began descending. She really was up high.

"Shouldn't we catch her or something?" asked a clone. "Nah." Said the original. "She's got that weird colour still, I think. She seemed to take a few solid hits with that so I guess she'll be good."

He watched as the girl fell out of the sky. He moved a few steps back as the girl fell approximately near where he'd been standing, kicking up a bit of dust.

It was lucky that he'd noticed her increased strength. He chuckled when he remembered the lecture he'd gotten from the old man.

Naruto let out a breath. He had to get moving. He was lucky the old man had told him about the benefits of being observant.

-Flashback-

Naruto was seated in Hiruzen's room at the Sarutobi compound. He had been meeting with the Hokage when he could, and that was somewhat often. Hiruzen, of course, had been pleased to have his favourite blond (Though Tsunade would probably raise hell if she heard that, so second favourite, he supposed) come visit him.

"Hey, Jiji," said the hyperactive blond. "What makes you such a strong ninja?" the boy wondered, partly in askance, partly in ponder.

' _Straight out of the left field, as usual'_ thought Hiruzen. ' _I wonder how he even manages to come up with some of this stuff.'_

Hiruzen chuckled. The question was characteristic of Naruto, its bluntness and the tone of absolute curiosity served as proof to that. "Naruto-kun, what makes a good shinobi?" he asked back.

"I dunno, Jiji, that's why I'm asking you." Was the simple reply.

"What do _you_ think, Naruto-kun?" the wizened old kage asked. Naruto had grown a bit since the exams, he wondered if the boy's take on what made a shinobi had changed.

"Well, I used to think it was knowing all sorts of cool jutsu, and awesome moves that'd make you super strong, but now, I'm not sure. I mean, I want to get strong and be able to protect my precious people. That's why I want to become Hokage. To be able to protect everyone in the village. That's what the Hokage does, right?" Answered the rookie chunnin.

He had been wondering about his reason for wanting to become Hokage in the first place. Sure, he wanted to be acknowledged for who he was. But the only reason he hadn't been acknowledged until now wasn't because people didn't want to acknowledge _him_ specifically, but because they hated what was inside him. Civilians didn't really understand shinobi matters as shinobi were a rather secretive lot (most of them at least, and the ones that weren't, well, they tended to be bloodthirsty, and well, _no one_ wanted that). As such, Naruto was hated by most of the civilian population. The shinobi population however, was another matter. The shinobi population of Konoha tended to view the yellow-haired chunnin as a rabid troublemaker, no doubt due to his infamous pranks from the academy.

But, tangents aside, Naruto seriously considered his village as a place that he'd grown to care a great deal about. The little bits of history he knew, mostly stories of heroism of the previous kage of Konoha, only reinforced the opinion he had. And so, in recent days, he'd decided that he'd been acknowledged by people he cared about and decided that though he wasn't the Hokage yet, in a sense, his dream of being acknowledged was in effect, something he wanted because of unavoidable circumstances, such as the civvies not really knowing him. The stares of hatred and the way he'd been ignored until now were actually because people made a concerted effort to do so, in effect, he was being acknowledged by people ignoring him.

The day he'd noticed this, which was after another one of his talks with Hiruzen, he wound up not doing anything at all. He wound up going to the top of the Hokage monument, and essentially, smiling as though he'd found something he'd been looking for all his life, which in effect, he had. He just relaxed and spent the whole day there (which was a feat in itself for the hyperactive blond). That evening, he had a full meal at Ichiraku's, setting another record. It was, of the best days of his life.

But, then he'd thought, what should he do next? He had people he cared about, people who cared about him and he'd achieved something he'd wanted for a really long time. In effect, he had everything he wanted. He was so happy he wanted to do something back for the village. Something for all the people he loved, his friends, his comrades, even the villagers who so scorned him.

He decided to protect Konoha, the place that had let him fulfil his dream. The place where he had grown up, the place where he'd met so many people who he'd grown to care about. He decided to stay there longer, to make more memories in the place of his birth. He decided to protect it. To be a Hokage to protect it as best as anyone could.

And that had led to here, with Hiruzen smiling at him brightly.

"That's true, Naruto-kun," he said. "Every man, woman and child in the village is the responsibility of the Hokage to protect."

"But what about the other villages, Jiji? I mean, they can't be all bad, right?"

Naruto knew that people from other villages were just like the people from his, having met and made friends on his missions before. Haku and Zabuza were prime examples. Had they lived, they could have been friends.

The old Hokage let out a tired sigh.

"Hm….I'll tell you what, Naruto-kun. I want _you_ to think of the answer to that, and then come one day and tell me. Until then, I'll teach you some of the things you'll need to know to live a happy and carefree life, as shinobi can."

Naruto looked a little nonplussed at not having his question, if it could even be called that, thought the Hokage, unanswered, but quickly perked up. "Okay, Jiji!" he replied brightly.

"So what cool thing do you want to start with first? How about awesome battle poses? How do you know when the explosions happen so you can look away, I mean that's how people look cool, right? Ooh, what about coming up with cool jutsu names?!"

The blond drooled at the idea of hearing so much cool stuff, and looked like an overeager puppy. Hiruzen sweatdropped. The kid really needed to cool down. The blond had steam coming out of his ears, for Kami's sake.

Deciding to say something before the blond really lost it, Hiruzen started. "What is the one thing that helps you understand the flow of a battle, Naruto-kun?"

"Huh?" was the eloquent response.

"When fighting, when you look at your opponent, as you're fighting, are you capable of telling if your opponent is holding back, humouring you, or if they are waiting for opportune moment to strike?"

"Well, don't you like know when they start taking you seriously?" asked the blond. Hiruzen patiently took a puff from his pipe and relaxed.

"Well, yes. You can never truly tell. But, there are certain things you could infer from the appearance and fighting technique of your opponent. You must learn to think a move ahead so in effect, you can make the right decisions in battle. Especially, when you lead a squad or when on mission that can have consequences of a political nature."

Taking another puff, he continued. "Why, let me tell you of when I became a jonin, and I was facing a rather wiry shinobi from Kiri…"

-End Flashback-

Naruto had learned, by the end of that story to really _look_ at your opponent, and to spot any tells and feints, to possibly identify anything that could help him win his battles.

That was what had been applied in his encounter with Tayuya.

Naruto then stopped before he made to run behind his escaped comrade. "Tie her up." He ordered his remaining clones. He figured he could use the girl to get any info on Otogakure.

"See if you can get her to the village. After, if you're too far away, dispel. Otherwise, come back me up as soon as you can. I'll dispel some clones to let you know where I am periodically."

Naruto's shadow clone jutsu was, in almost all aspects of shinobi life, a boon in terms of versatility. He could make clones to help him accelerate his training, to help him with any scouting he had to do for his missions, and also in combat for a variety of things. One of those things he had discovered recently was that clones could hide and use their capabilities to make more clones, who would then serve as hit-and-run assailants. They would try suicidal one hit moves that could either work or serve as useful distractions.

Naruto's clones began their assigned task as he jumped into the trees to continue his pursuit of Sasuke.

-Meanwhile, back with others-

The exhausted face of Shikamaru Nara stared at the explosion that engulfed the gigantic Juugo. It had taken almost all of the explosive tags the group of ninja had to bring the fight to his point.

The behemoth had hit the team with all the force of a catapult hurling fiery anvils. It had taken soldier pills and one team member each time to bring the injured ninja back to the battle.

Kiba watched the flaming explosion with satisfaction. It had been almost impossible to take their huge opponent down. The generous use of explosive tags had greatly helped in the process. It would be useful to have more of those in battle, given the amount of havoc hey wrecked, he thought. His glee was short-lived, however, as he remembered his constant canine companion who had been taken out at the onset of the battle.

Kiba tore his eyes away from the explosion and jumped in the direction of his fallen comrade. He had to make sure that Akamaru was alright.

Choji and Neji came back just in time to see the fireworks as the area of land that had been Juugo's general vicinity became a whirling torrent of fire and smoke.

Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief. This had been far, far too troublesome. He had to catch up on much-needed sleep after he got back.

The flames finally dispersed to reveal the burnt form of Juugo, sans most of the brown parts of his skin. His right foot up till the knee was almost completely removed. The smell of burnt flesh wafted through the air with the breeze. It was a grotesque, gory sight that caused most ninja at the scene to make a concerted effort to keep their breakfast down.

The assembled ninja saw the blood was flowing out through the wound. Shikamaru urged Choji to check if the man was still alive and with signalled him with a finger to his neck to finish him off.

"Bunbun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Expansion Jutsu)!" shouted the rotund boy. His hands and forearms alone grew much bigger than the rest of his body. He slammed them on the prone form of the fallen Juugo and lifted the large man up and then slammed him down forcefully.

The boys watched as the large man hit the ground with the full force of a speeding bus. They paused. What on earth was a bus?

Continuing, Kiba, now with Akamaru cradled between his arms, set the small ninken down and stepped up with a kunai, presumably.

-Back at Konoha-

Jiraiya walked up to the Kage tower after another successful spy mission. He was wondering which way he could better annoy his busty team mate, by going through the window or by busting through the door. It was still pretty early, so he could maybe catch Tsunade still snoozing. Some pictures would be great blackmail material. It was then that he noticed that there seemed to be some state of emergency in the tower. His eyes narrowed and he began channelling chakra to his feet. Whatever it was, he was going to find out.

-A few minutes later-

"Orochimaru, again?!" he nearly bellowed.

"Yes, Jiraiya." Replied the acting Hokage. "It seems our old teammate doesn't seem to be satisfied with the current state of affairs. He wants the Sharingan. I've sent Naruto and a few more genin out. But, I need someone to back up them on short notice."

"I'll see you later, then, hime." The toad sannin answered, walking out. There was an old score to settle here.

It was a good thing he had been there to dispose the barrier corps or whatever that Orochimaru had been using when he tried to assassinate Hiruzen. He had decided after the Suna-Oto invasion to stick around more often as attacks like those could happen in the future. The village was growing, but it needed more time to flower. The ninja were strong, but they had the potential to grow. And they needed to, because of the vicious cycle of wars the elemental nations usually went through. Jiraiya wanted a way to stop it, he'd been thinking about this for so long, but he wasn't fully sure. Sometimes, he just wanted it all to stop.

He had decided to return a few days ahead of schedule, partly on a whim, partly because he had finished his usual work early. And now, he had to something to do, because of his wayward teammate. Orochimaru. The person he'd tried to stop from leaving. The person who'd become so twisted that he was no longer than pale, pasty asshole who'd been his teammate. He could only traces of the nin he knew back in the day now. And the man never seemed to stop degrading the morals of humanity. Taking over other human bodies? He stooped to such immoral and vile acts, it was impossible to see him as the person he became a genin with anymore. He man thrived off deplorable acts, sacrilege and other acts involving defiling anything that could be considered sacred to anyone. He had truly become some kind of twisted flunky, deriving pleasure out of his attempts to become immortal and learn all jutsu.

Seriously, what was with the man and immortality?

Jiraiya sighed. It seemed he needed to come to a decision on this matter once and for all after this little excursion.

Very well.

First things first.

He crossed the village gates, his speed making him a red and white blur to most people who happened to see him.

He couldn't let Orochimaru get his hands on the Sharingan. The body of an Uchiha would be a prize the snake sannin could use to cause exponentially more destruction, if this was allowed to happen. For that, to finish this off once and for all, he needed to train.

Well, that could wait. This couldn't.

-Back with Naruto-

The blond hopped into a clearing where it seemed a white-haired, pale-skinned man was holding some weird kind of barrel.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Stop!"

Naruto really wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. It finally dawned upon the rookie Chunnin that what he had done was one of the silliest, if not the most stupid thing he had ever done. As though, the guy would stop if he _just told_ him to.

Which is why, he face-faulted when Kimimaro did just that. 'What the hell?!' he thought. 'Maybe this guy doesn't want to fight. Yeah, maybe he's just working for Orochimaru because he _has_ to. Yeah, he probably isn't loyal at all. Maybe, I can _talk_ him out of it. Yeah, and all this will be over. I'm just awesome!'

Later, Naruto would make himself a clone for the express purpose for slapping himself on the face so hard, he'd hit the ground. The aforementioned action was taken because Naruto was reminded of the _sheer idiocy_ he'd displayed in thinking this way.

Anyway, our blond chunnin stopped in the clearing to see the albino who had surprisingly ceased running to set the drum down. The top of the drum was ripped open by a strange-looking hand that was a few seconds later noticed to be Sasuke's.

Only, he looked like a freakin'…well….freak.

'Okay, what the actual FUCK?!' was the only coherent thought that went through Naruto's brain.

Then the cursemark receded. The weird colouring, and other rather gross features, in Naruto's opinion, went back into the curse mark.

Naruto had a few days ago, learnt from Kakashi that Sasuke was in fact periodically troubled by the seal and that Kakashi had placed the Fuja Hoin(Evil Sealing Method) on him, and that Sasuke could use his will to supress the seal.

Naruto, based on these facts, came to one, logical conclusion.

-With the others-

As Kiba walked towards the behemoth to finally finish him off, he failed to notice the twitching of the man's fingers. As he took the final few steps towards the bulky frame of Juugo, he was subject to a strong wind that forced him to close his eyes for a second.

There was then the sound of a strong wind and something hitting a tree.

He opened his eyes to see streaks of crimson of his usually fully grey hoodie. He turned to the sandy haired girl who had appeared in the chuunin exams. He then turned to see Juugo's frame against the trunk of a tree, his eyes open. And glaring at the lot of them.

And then from the trees came a variety of strange weapons, which impaled Juugo in a rapid flurry of strikes. "That should take care of him." Said Kankuro, appearing from behind a nearby tree.

"Thanks for the assist." Said Shikamaru to Temari. She nodded in response. "We were asked to back you up as fast as we could."

He nodded. "That guy might still not be down." He said to the Suna-nin. "That's impossible," said Kankuro, matter-of-factly. "That guy's pumped full of poison from Karasu (crow). He's dead."

"Trust me, we blew up the shit out of him with like ten explosive tags, and that's how we got his leg like that." Said Kiba, from beside Shikamaru.

"Ten explosive tags?!" Kankuro-half yelled. "That's enough to blow him to smithereens!"

This statement's stark consequences were made evident by the fact that Juugo got up once again, his eyes back to their glare.

"That's enough to kill us, if we don't start moving again, NOW!" yelled Shikamaru.

And move, they did, as Juugo began to get up again.

"Well, that's not good." Said Kiba, summing it all up for them eloquently.


End file.
